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Three uncapped players in England's 25-man squad for Argentina

(Photo by Alex Davidson/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Eddie Jones has named three uncapped players in his 25-man squad that prepares to take on Argentina this Sunday at Twickenham.

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Northampton Saints second-row duo David Ribbans and Alex Coles, and Newcastle Falcons lock Sean Robinson are the three, and at least one will make the matchday squad when Jones whittles the group down on Friday. Coles and Robinson are both adept at lock and flanker, and frequently shift between the two positions.

If Jones opts for a 6-2 split on the bench rather than a 5-3 split, two of the uncapped players will be part of the squad. Of course, all three could be involved, but that would mean they would have to usurp some regular stalwarts in Jones’ pack.

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The squad also includes Luke Cowan-Dickie as one of the two hookers. The 29-year-old has been recovering from a knee injury suffered against Saracens just under two weeks ago, and will compete with Jack Singleton for a starting berth.

In the backline, Owen Farrell and Jonny May are both included after missing England’s Jersey camp last week. Farrell has been recovering from a concussion suffered against Exeter Chiefs two weeks ago, while May has made a miraculous recovery from a dislocated elbow that same weekend.

England Squad
Forwards
Alex Coles (Northampton Saints, uncapped)
Luke Cowan-Dickie (Exeter Chiefs, 37 caps)
Tom Curry (Sale Sharks, 41 caps)
Ellis Genge (Bristol Bears, 39 caps)
Joe Heyes (Leicester Tigers, 5 caps)
Jonny Hill (Sale Sharks, 15 caps)
Maro Itoje (Saracens, 58 caps)
David Ribbans (Northampton Saints, uncapped)
Sean Robinson (Newcastle Falcons, uncapped)
Sam Simmonds (Exeter Chiefs, 14 caps)
Kyle Sinckler (Bristol Bears, 52 caps)
Jack Singleton (Gloucester Rugby, 3 caps)
Billy Vunipola (Saracens, 64 caps)
Mako Vunipola (Saracens, 70 caps)
Jack Willis (unattached, 4 caps)

Backs
Joe Cokanasiga (Bath Rugby, 12 caps)
Owen Farrell (Saracens, 97 caps)
Jonny May (Gloucester Rugby, 69 caps)
Jack Nowell (Exeter Chiefs, 42 caps)
Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs, 48 caps)
Marcus Smith (Harlequins, 13 caps)
Freddie Steward (Leicester Tigers, 13 caps)
Manu Tuilagi (Sale Sharks, 46 caps)
Jack van Poortvliet (Leicester Tigers, 3 caps)
Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers, 117 caps)

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
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