Nowell starts as Cokanasiga included in squad
Jack Nowell is poised to return to England’s starting line-up to face Wales this Saturday, with fellow-wing Joe Cokanasiga ready to make his first Six Nations appearance after being retained in a 25-man squad that will travel to Cardiff.
With Chris Ashton ruled out with a calf injury, Nowell is set to return to the starting line-up after dropping out in favour of Ashton for the victory over France nine days ago.
Nowell impressed in Dublin as England began their campaign with a 32-20 victory over reigning champions Ireland, and Eddie Jones admitted that the Exeter Chiefs wing could consider himself unlucky
to drop to the replacements’ bench.
Nowell will likely line up in the No 14 shirt, with a fit-again Cokanasiga returning to the matchday squad for the first time since his impressive outing against Australia in November, having fully recovered from a knee injury that has hampered him since December.
The 25 players retained for the rest of the week will all head to Cardiff for the Grand Slam eliminator against Wales that sees the two remaining unbeaten sides collide in a match that could well decide the championship, clean sweep and Triple Crown.
However, two players will be left out as injury-cover, with either Brad Shields or Nathan Hughes and one of George Ford and Ben Te’o set be the unlucky 24th and 25th man. Based on Jones’ selections against Ireland and France, Shields and Te’o are likely to be the unlucky duo.
Ellis Genge has won his race to be fit to return to the squad after overcoming an ankle injury suffered in training last Thursday, with the Leicester Tigers loosehead joining Ben Moon in the squad and Alec Hepburn heading back to Exeter. Similarly, Harry Williams returns to the squad as the Chief is preferred to Dan Cole, who heads back to Leicester despite making his return to international rugby after nearly 11 months last time out against France.
Otherwise, the squad is at it was against France, meaning two of George Kruis, Courtney Lawes and Joe Launchbury will make up the second-row combination and a back-row of Mark Wilson, Tom Curry and Billy Vunipola continues with either Hughes or Shields as cover.
Ben Youngs and Dan Robson remain Jones’ options at scrum-half, with captain Owen Farrell likely to be supported by Ford providing he is preferred to Farrell. Te’o could yet force his way into the centre, although Manu Tuilagi and Henry Slade have looked a formidable pairing so far this championship and are likely to continue with Jonny May, Nowell and Elliot Daly making up the back three. Jones has also decided to retain injured lock Maro Itoje in the squad, despite the forward failing to recover in time to feature against Wales. With another fallow week following the trip to Cardiff, England expect Itoje to recover from a damaged medial ligament in his knee to feature against Italy in round four – although Jones could look to keep him wrapped in cotton wool for the weekend finale against Scotland.
“Maro is continuing his rehabilitation on a daily basis, (but) he will not be available for Saturday’s game,” said England forwards coach Steve Borthwick on Tuesday.
“He’s going well, just not quite well enough for this weekend. At the moment he’s going through his running progressions and that’s being developed on a daily basis.”
Itoje was not the only guest in camp on Tuesday as former Chelsea and England football captain John Terry, who is currently earning his stripes in management as assistant coach to Aston Villa boss Dean Smith, watched on during training and offered his thoughts on Jones’ session as well as have his brains picked by the national team. Terry is not the first figure from the spherical-ball game to drop in on training, with both England manager Gareth Southgate and former Chelsea boss Antonio Conte previously dropping in to their Bagshot training base.
“To have the opportunity to speak to someone like him with his experience is excellent,” Borthwick said of the 38-year-old ex-footballer.
“It’s a different sport, yes, but you can still talk about the traits of successful teams.
“We’re trying to keep learning and keep developing to be a successful team. He talked about how the senior playing group led and drove the standards at training.”