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'Ireland are the best side in the world' - Jones

England coach Eddie Jones

“Ireland are the best side in the world” – that’s according to England head coach Eddie Jones, who revealed his 35-man England Six Nations squad this morning.

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England open their campaign in Dublin on February 2 against an Ireland side who completed the Grand Slam at Twickenham last year.

“Ireland are the best side in the world,” Jones added. “They are a very well coached and drilled side and have particular things they do well in the game.

“To beat Ireland, we need to compete brutally in all the contest areas of the game.

Jones left out co-captain Dylan Hartley has been left out of England’s training squad for the game in Dublin.

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Owen Farrell will therefore skipper the team, while head coach Eddie Jones has included four uncapped players in the squad – OIlie Thorley, Dan Robson, Jack Singleton and Ben Earl.

England are boosted by the return of Billy Vunipola, Joe Launchbury, Mako Vunipola and Ellis Genge for the first time since last year’s tour of South Africa, while Dan Cole, Jack Clifford and Ollie Devoto are also included after long absences.

“Unfortunately, Dylan won’t be available for the Ireland game so we won’t take him to Portugal [for a training camp] but we are hopeful he will be back later in the championship,” explained Jones.

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“Owen will be captain by himself and he will certainly have great support from a number of senior players.”

“We are very happy with the squad and have a number of players who have come back from long-term injury.

“We are looking forward to getting across to Portugal and having a good 10-day preparation for the Ireland game.”

 

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England squad:

Forwards: Jack Clifford, Dan Cole, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Tom Curry, Ben Earl, Ellis Genge, Jamie George, Nathan Hughes, Maro Itoje, George Kruis, Joe Launchbury, Courtney Lawes, Ben Moon, Brad Shields, Kyle Sinckler, Jack Singleton, Billy Vunipola, Mako Vunipola, Harry Williams, Mark Wilson.

Backs: Chris Ashton, Mike Brown, Joe Cokanasiga, Elliot Daly, Ollie Devoto, Owen Farrell (captain), George Ford, Jonny May, Jack Nowell, Dan Robson, Henry Slade, Ben Te’o, Ollie Thorley, Manu Tuilagi, Ben Youngs.

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J
JW 37 minutes ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Where? I remember saying "unders"? The LNR was formed by the FFR, if I said that in a way that meant the 'pro' side of the game didn't have an equal representation/say as the 'amateur' side (FFR remit) that was not my intent.


But also, as it is the governing body, it also has more responsibility. As long as WR looks at FFR as the running body for rugby in France, that 'power' will remain. If the LNR refuses to govern their clubs use of players to enable a request by FFR (from WR) to ensure it's players are able to compete in International rugby takes place they will simply remove their participation. If the players complain to the France's body, either of their health and safety concerns (through playing too many 'minutes' etc) or that they are not allowed to be part in matches of national interest, my understanding is action can be taken against the LNR like it could be any other body/business. I see where you're coming from now re EPCR and the shake up they gave it, yes, that wasn't meant to be a separate statement to say that FFR can threaten them with EPCR expulsion by itself, simply that it would be a strong repercussion for those teams to be removed (no one would want them after the above).


You keep bringing up these other things I cannot understand why. Again, do you think if the LNR were not acting responsibly they would be able to get away with whatever they want (the attitude of these posters saying "they pay the players")? You may deem what theyre doing currently as being irresponsible but most do not. Countries like New Zealand have not even complained about it because they've never had it different, never got things like windfall TV contracts from France, so they can't complain because theyre not missing out on anything. Sure, if the French kept doing things like withholding million dollar game payments, or causing millions of dollars of devaluation in rights, they these things I'm outlining would be taking place. That's not the case currently however, no one here really cares what the French do. It's upto them to sort themselves out if they're not happy. Now, that said, if they did make it obvious to World Rugby that they were never going to send the French side away (like they possibly did stating their intent to exclude 20 targeted players) in July, well then they would simply be given XV fixtures against tier 2 sides during that window and the FFR would need to do things like the 50/50 revenue split to get big teams visiting in Nov.

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