Farrell in but Kruis pays for Puma flop
OWEN FARRELL will make his England comeback at Twickenham on Saturday — but fellow Lion George Kruis has been dropped for the showpiece Test against the Wallabies. Farrell will return to the matchday squad after fulfilling waterboy duties against Argentina, although Eddie Jones is yet to decide whether he will start at No 10, 12 or on the bench. The coach will make his call after today’s double training session at Pennyhill Park, with Lions prop Joe Marler also ready to return against Australia. England have retained 10 of their Lions contingent but Kruis was last night’s big omission following the limp show against the Pumas. Kruis started in the 21-8 victory and his release may be related to a strategy to manage player workloads — or simply that he has been dropped on form, with Joe Launchbury and Charlie Ewels retained. His omission coincides with the return of Maro Itoje, who was also rested alongside Farrell last weekend, and Jones claims the star pair ‘want to play and are ready’. Jones held talks with Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall in September about rotating his squad and more changes are likely to follow against Samoa. Marler has come back from a three-week ban to replace Ellis Genge in the 25-man squad, while Jonny May hopes to start after recovering from a hamstring injury. Along with Kruis and Genge, the other players who have been released back to their clubs are Tom Dunn, Piers Francis, Nick Isiekwe, Alex Lozowski, Zach Mercer, Marcus Smith and Denny Solomona. Mike Brown will stay in camp, despite the Harlequins full back being unlikely to appear on Saturday as he goes through concussion protocols. Anthony Watson and Elliot Daly are in contention to take over from Brown.