Banned duo make England squad

ENGLAND yesterday included suspended duo James Haskell and Joe Marler in their training squad ahead of their Six Nations opener against Italy in Rome. Wasps flanker Haskell and Harlequins prop Marler were handed bans this month — for a dangerous tackle and a dangerous clear-out of a ruck respectively — and they did not attend England’s 34-man training camp in Portugal. The duo will miss England’s opening fixtures, in Rome on Sunday and then against Wales at Twickenham on February 10, but head coach Eddie Jones has called up the players nevertheless. Fly-half Marcus Smith is among the eight uncapped players in the squad. Zach Mercer, Tom Dunn, Alec Hepburn, Nathan Earle, Harry Mallinder, Lewis Boyce and Gary Graham are the other new faces. Italy are aiming to unsettle England again, a year after coming close to causing a seismic shock at Twickenham, as they led 10-5 at half-time and trailed by just two points deep into the final quarter. Afterwards, Jones condemned the Azzurri’s ‘ruckless’ breakdown ploy, but his counterpart, Conor O’Shea, was riled by the criticism. ‘I thought there was an overreaction last year,,’ he said. ‘It was 17-15 in the 68th minute. I think people started looking at the five or six times we just played to the rules and did something different. ‘What frustrated me was we’d played good rugby and didn’t get the credit for it.’ At Twickenham, Italy did not contest most rucks and instead came round to block English passes, which bewildered their rivals, who kept calling for offside. The law was subsequently altered to prevent a repeat of the ploy and O’Shea added: ‘The clarification to the law was done too hastily — because it led to a game with more contact in it now. And it didn’t need to be tinkered with, because we didn’t do it that much. You couldn’t do it that often.’