Jones on edge Farrell faces desperate fitness fight

England will make an 11th-hour call on Owen Farrell’s fitness before their pivotal Calcutta Cup clash this afternoon after the 25-year-old missed training yesterday.

Should Farrell fail to recover from the injury he sustained to his left leg on Thursday then Ben Te’o would start at inside centre against Scotland. Gloucester wing Jonny May, as the 24th man, would come on to the bench, leaving England with no specialist cover at fly-half or inside centre. The goal-kicking responsibilities would fall to fly-half George Ford and wing Elliot Daly.

For the moment, however, defence coach Paul Gustard remains optimistic that Farrell will play as England seek to secure a recordequalling 18th consecutive victory that could propel them towards back-to-back Grand Slam titles. “We have until tomorrow before kick-off to make a decision, which means he has at least another 24 hours of recovery ahead of him,” Gustard said. “We’ll make a call as and when we know more.

“He didn’t train today so by definition there’s a small concern about him. But we’re confident in his rehab. And if he doesn’t come through we’re very happy with Ben Te’o. Whatever combination we end up with at 10, 12, 13, we’re happy.” Farrell was on the Twickenham pitch in his playing kit going through the motions of kicking alongside Jonny Wilkinson, who also spent a considerable amount of time monitoring Ford.

The mixed messages employed by Eddie Jones in his press conference on Thursday in which he initially joked that Farrell’s injury had been caused by a collision with the head coach’s dog, Annie, continued. Gustard initially claimed that Farrell’s injury had not disrupted England’s preparations saying that “we’ve had normal training without him”. He then tried to correct himself, “With him, sorry,” which

further clouded the issue. The strong suspicion is that Farrell will start. The fact that England have not sent for a further fly-half in the shape of Exeter’s Henry Slade or Alex Lozowski, who is on the bench for Saracens’ Anglo-Welsh semifinal today against Leicester, would indicate their confidence that he will recover. Gustard admitted they had not considered who would cover No10 should Ford be injured in the event of Farrell not recovering.

“Good question,” Gustard said. “We’re confident with Owen at the moment. We’ll talk about further permutations later on. That will be a question we have with Eddie. But at the moment it’s not something we’ve discussed, no. We’re not bringing anyone in. We’re obviously very happy with Ben in the squad. We have Jonny May with us at the moment as 24th man, so we have some flexibility as cover.”

Goal-kicking would also become a concern. Daly is a long-range specialist who has attempted only a handful of kicks for Wasps this season. The last time that Ford took over the kicking duties in Farrell’s absence, against Wales last May, the Bath fly-half missed six of his seven attempts at goal and was booed by sections of the Twickenham crowd.

Farrell himself struggled off the tee against Italy, missing four of his seven kicks at goal.