ENGLAND’S PREPARATIONS FOR Saturday’s Six Nations showdown against Ireland have been dealt a blow with the news powerful centre Ben Te’o has been ruled out of the game through injury.
Eddie Jones will be forced to reshuffle his midfield plans for England’s visit to Dublin, with Leicester’s Manu Tuilagi now in line to make his first Six Nations start in six years.
Te’o sustained a side strain during England’s warm-weather training camp in Portugal this week and his absence means Jones may be forced to deploy Owen Farrell at 12, or turn to Exeter Chiefs’ Henry Slade to partner Tuilagi.
In addition, both Brad Shields and Joe Cokanasiga will miss this weekend’s game, while Jones has released a number of players back to their clubs, thereby reducing his squad to 25 ahead of Thursday’s team announcement.
“They’re not far away from where we want them to be, but obviously for a game of this magnitude, we need everyone at 100%,” England scrum coach Neal Hatley said of Te’o and Shields.
“It was a small side strain [suffered by Te'o] just in training – it was fairly innocuous.
It’s not like Ben is the only player who has run at 12 for us. We’ve tried different people in there making sure that if something like this comes up, there are contingencies in place.
On Tuilagi, who made his first England appearance in two years against Australia back in November, Hatley added: “Manu’s been looking brilliant. You’ve seen some of his Champions Cup performances — for example against Scarlets at Welford Road.
“Manu’s just got better and better and better as he’s put games together. He’s trained exceptionally well in the midfield for us. He’s in a really good space.
“He’s a physical player and guys like playing alongside blokes like that. He definitely has a positive effect.”
Among those released from duty by Jones are Dan Cole, Jonathan Joseph and Ollie Thorley.
England squad:
Forwards: L Cowan-Dickie (Exeter Chiefs), T Curry (Sale Sharks), E Genge (Leicester Tigers), J George (Saracens), N Hughes (Wasps), M Itoje (Saracens), G Kruis (Saracens), J Launchbury (Wasps), C Lawes (Northampton Saints), K Sinckler (Harlequins), B Vunipola (Saracens), M Vunipola (Saracens), H Williams (Exeter Chiefs), M Wilson (Newcastle Falcons).
Backs: C Ashton (Sale Sharks), M Brown (Harlequins), E Daly (Wasps), O Farrell (Saracens, capt), G Ford (Leicester Tigers), J May (Leicester Tigers), J Nowell (Exeter Chiefs), D Robson (Wasps), H Slade (Exeter Chiefs), M Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers), B Youngs (Leicester Tigers).
Join us to preview the Six Nations with Simon Zebo, Murray Kinsella and Gavan Casey on Thursday @7pm in Liberty Hall Theatre Dublin.
