MAY BLOW CAN OPEN THE DOOR FOR MARCHANT
JONNY MAY has pulled out of the England squad and is set to miss the start of the Six Nations as Eddie Jones’ preparations hit another roadblock.
Winger May is England’s second highest try scorer, with 35 from 69 Tests, but his knee injury could open the door for Harlequins’ Joe Marchant (below).
May is expected to sit out the opening game with Scotland on February 5 and the trip to Italy a week later.
Head coach Jones also has problems with his captaincy with Courtney Lawes unable to train this week at their camp in Brighton as he goes through head injury return-to-play protocols.
Lawes was a front runner to captain the side in the opening game against Scotland with Owen Farrell sidelined with another ankle injury.
Back rower, and one of England’s vice-captains, Tom Curry could come into the frame to lead the team if Lawes fails to recover.
And another Saracens star, Nick Isiekwe, has joined the squad as cover.
Lawes left the Northampton game against Ulster after 65 minutes this month after appearing to take a knock but that was dismissed as fatigue by his club.
But Saracens’ Elliot Daly is restored to the squad after missing the autumn internationals as he recovered from surgery.
Daly looked sharp for Saracens in Sunday’s 45-24 Challenge Cup win over London Irish after recuperating from a shin operation following the British and Irish Lions tour to South Africa. If picked, the 29-year-old, who can play centre, wing and fullback would give England a long range goal-kicking option and has been earmarked by Jones to exploit the new 50-22 law.
As expected, George Ford gets the chance to stake a claim for a 78th England cap after being snubbed for the November internationals and will be competing with Marcus Smith for the No.10 shirt.
Jones had inked in Farrell to start at 12, with Smith at fly-half, but those plans have been blown out of the water.
One option is to switch Henry Slade to inside centre, where he played for the majority of the 27-26 win over South Africa in the autumn, or start with Gloucester’s Mark Atkinson. Smith is still in pole position to begin the game with Ford a steadying influence off the bench – but Jones feels the Quins star still has work to do.
The 22-year-old has performed miracles, digging his club out of seemingly impossible situations but a full-blown Murrayfield ding-dong is a different matter.
“You can see that he’s lifted Quins out of a number tricky situations and got them over the line with his focus and his drive,” said Jones.
“There are areas of his preparation he can tidy up, and we’ll chat about those when we come into camp. His scope for improvement is massive.”
■ France scrum-half Antoine Dupont has been named as the Rugby Union Writers’ Club Personality of the Year for 2021.