Get all your news in one place.

100’s of premium titles.
One app.

Start reading

Get all your news in one place.

100’s of premium titles. One news app.

Start reading

The Guardian - UK

Sport

Stuart Goodwin

Ben Te'o left out of England Rugby World Cup squad – as it happened

1.54pm BST

Before I sign off, a quick reminder of Jones’s picks …

England’s 31-man Rugby World Cup squad

Forwards
Dan Cole (Leicester, 86 caps)
Luke Cowan-Dickie (Exeter, 12 caps)
Tom Curry (Sale, 11 caps)
Ellis Genge (Leicester, 10 caps)
Jamie George (Saracens, 37 caps)
Maro Itoje (Saracens, 27 caps)
George Kruis (Saracens, 32 caps)
Joe Launchbury (Wasps, 59 caps)
Courtney Lawes (Northampton, 72 caps)
Lewis Ludlam (Northampton, 1 cap)
Joe Marler (Harlequins, 58 caps)
Kyle Sinckler (Harlequins, 22 caps)
Jack Singleton (Saracens, 1 cap)
Sam Underhill (Bath, 9 caps)
Billy Vunipola (Saracens, 42 caps)
Mako Vunipola (Saracens, 53 caps)
Mark Wilson (Newcastle/Sale, 13 caps)

Backs
Joe Cokanasiga (Bath, 5 caps)
Elliot Daly (Saracens, 31 caps)
Owen Farrell (Saracens, 70 caps)
George Ford (Leicester, 56 caps)
Piers Francis (Northampton, 5 caps)
Willi Heinz (Gloucester, 1 cap)
Jonathan Joseph (Bath, 41 caps)
Jonny May (Leicester, 45 caps)
Ruaridh McConnochie (Bath, uncapped)
Jack Nowell (Exeter, 33 caps)
Henry Slade (Exeter, 22 caps)
Manu Tuilagi (Leicester, 33 caps)
Anthony Watson (Bath, 34 caps)
Ben Youngs (Leicester, 86 caps)

Among those missing out:
Brad Shields, Harry Williams, Ben Spencer, Danny Cipriani and Charlie Ewels.

Thanks for joining me this afternoon. Plenty more World Cup countdown to come before the big kick-off on 20 September. We’ll all be sick of it by the knockout phase. Happy Monday, folks!

Updated at 2.25pm BST

1.46pm BST

Below the line, kent bray offers …

That is a strong squad. Injury free, they will be very very hard to beat. My only criticisms … I do think Farrell is an international player, I do not think he is an international captain; 1 back up scrum half, who has virtually no international experience. Youngs had better stay fit.

Te’o very unlucky imo. I understand Francis is a more attacking option than Te’o, therefore balances the squad a bit better, I just don’t think Francis is international class.

A very good squad though. As I said, if they remain injury free, England fans should look forward to the tournament with excitement and confidence.

1.44pm BST

Former England scrum-half Matt Dawson, speaking to BBC Five Live, talked up Lewis Ludlam’s credentials …

The glimpse that I have had … you just feel that he looks like an international player. He looks like he sits nicely. Early on, he was tapping the rest of the team on the heads – senior pros – saying: ‘Let’s do this’. He slots in nicely.

The balance of that back row, either with Tom Curry or if he steps into 7 with Courtney Lawes or Billy Vunipola – no-one wants to come up against those guys.

1.41pm BST

Jones is due to explain his selections later, but meanwhile he now knows his core of 31 for the final three warm-up matches against Wales, Ireland and Italy.

He said of the final three tune-up outings: “Every game is an opportunity to improve our game fitness, our team cohesion, and our tactical adaptability. Each game for us will have a specific purpose.”

1.31pm BST

In case you missed it, Gerard Meagher spoke to Ruaridh McConnochie for this lovely piece earlier in the month. He has a stranger route to Japan than most, having been part of England’s sevens set-up until extremely recently …

1.27pm BST

A note on the England captaincy

Owen Farrell and Dylan Hartley are still, theoretically, co-captains of England. However, in the absence of Hartley, who hasn’t played since last December due to a niggling knee injury, it’s turned sharply towards being a one-man job.

The second paragraph of England’s announcement reads simply:

“Owen Farrell will captain England in his second Rugby World Cup.”

1.21pm BST

Jones’s squad features a mix of experience and fresh faces. While the 31 have over 1,000 caps between them, Ludlam, Singleton, Heinz and McConnochie have just the three among the four of them. The first three debuted against Wales, while McConnochie was in line to feature before being sidelined late with a hip injury.

Dan Cole and Ben Youngs have 86 caps apiece, and along with Courtney Lawes will be featuring in their third World Cup.

Brad Shields and Harry Williams also OUT.

McConnochie is England's first uncapped World Cup pick since Joe Simpson in 2007
— Gerard Meagher (@gerard_meagher) August 12, 2019

Updated at 1.22pm BST

1.14pm BST

So … it’s a bad day for Brad Shields, Harry Williams, Ben Spencer, Danny Cipriani and Charlie Ewels.

Jones favours Jack Singleton as the third hooker alongside Jamie George and Luke Cowan-Dickie. Ben Youngs and Willi Heinz are the only scrum-halves in the squad, and Kyle Sinckler and Dan Cole are the only two tighthead props.

Eddie Jones has gone for 17 forwards and 14 backs...six back three players to cover for currently injured Nowell. Strong squad in many respects but still a nagging sense that several good, potentially valuable players are not on the plane.
— robert kitson (@robkitson) August 12, 2019

1.08pm BST

Gerard’s full news piece on the announcement is here …

1.07pm BST

Accompanying the announcement, Jones was quoted as saying:

“Today is another step in the progress towards the Rugby World Cup. We have taken the decision to go early because of what we learned from previous campaigns. We want the squad to know early and now we can get on and be the best prepared England side there has ever been, ready to win the World Cup.”

“A lot of good players have missed out, we feel for them, I feel for them personally. But as we know the World Cup is an incredible tournament where opportunities can present themselves and all those players who have missed out have been told they have to be ready.”

1.02pm BST

England's 31-man World Cup squad

Hot off the press …

Every journey starts somewhere 🌄

Here is your 31-man England squad for Japan 🌹

➡ https://t.co/iDqmKi3LQX pic.twitter.com/C2MDfA3iPI
— England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) August 12, 2019

Updated at 1.05pm BST

1.01pm BST

Ben Te'o out, uncapped McConnochie in

Ben Te’o has been left out of England’s World Cup squad following his off-field altercation with Mike Brown during the recent warm-weather camp in Treviso. The 32-year-old is the biggest casualty from Jones’s 31-man squad with Piers Francis preferred in his place.

Lewis Ludlam and Willi Heinz have both been included after their impressive debuts against Wales on Sunday while Ruaridh McConnochie is also picked, making him the first uncapped member of an England World Cup squad since Joe Simpson in 2011.

The writing was on the wall for Te’o when, along with Brown, he was left out of the squad preparing to face Wales last week. Details of the pair’s altercation then emerged but Jones’s decision to leave him out is still a surprise considering how highly he has valued Te’o’s direct running in the past. Brown also misses out meaning, along with the omissions of Dylan Hartley, Chris Robshaw, Nathan Hughes and Danny Care, Jones has decided against selecting six players, until recently trusted lieutenants, who boast 361 caps between them.

Updated at 1.07pm BST

12.58pm BST

Squad announcement in two mins. Stand by folks …

12.51pm BST

Below the line, occamsrazor42 has Cipriani in his 31 …

“Was at the game yesterday, and was slightly surprised (not for the first time) at how differently people view the same game.

I thought Heinz was a terrible failed experiment. I’ve never been a massive Youngs fan, but Heinz seemed to too often put pressure on the first receiver when there was no gain to it. That’s a cardinal sin for a SH, in my book.

I thought Francis/JJ/ Daly had poor games (though Daly has a fair amount of credit in the bank).
Ludlam has bulk but not sure it’s his time yet.
Thought Genge was excellent, as was Curry before his injury.
In terms of people who might not make the plane based on that:
Ludlam, Heinz, Francis, Ewels
JJ should be sweating. Given we have Slade, Farrell, Manu, Daly, Te’o, Lozowski who can all play centre.”

Majorbumsore adds: “Some of Heinz’s passing yesterday, especially off the left hand, was woefully inaccurate.”

Updated at 12.52pm BST

12.45pm BST

Fifteen minutes out from the announcement, a quick reminder of what happens next:

England have three more World Cup warm-up matches:

17 Aug: Wales v England, Principality Stadium
24 Aug: England v Ireland, Twickenham
6 Sept: England v Italy, St James’ Park

Two days after the Italy match comes the hard deadline for all squads to be named.

Hosts Japan face Russia in the tournament opener on 20 September, and soon afterwards Jones’s side start their campaign…

Rugby World Cup, Group C
22 Sept: England v Tonga, Sapporo Dome
26 Sept: England v USA, Kobe Misaki Stadium
5 Oct: England v Argentina, Tokyo Stadium
12 Oct: England v France, International Stadium Yokohama

12.36pm BST

Stuart Barnes tells Sky Sports News: “Eddie Jones is like a juggler.” Not a slight, I promise – he was complimenting the coach’s capacity to see the big picture.

The former England fly-half also sees a potential way in for Piers Francis, and notes the impact injuries could play before the tournament proper: “Not all of the 31 will be going to Japan.”

12.26pm BST

Jones also, apparently unprompted, lunged head-first at all officials everywhere.

This from Gerard Meagher’s news piece …

Referring to the red card shown to New Zealand’s Scott Barrett in the All Blacks’ record defeat by Australia on Saturday, he described the decision as “ridiculous” and urged World Rugby to find some consistency. He also claimed that following the same letter of the law, there were two incidents in England’s impressive win against Wales that could have warranted red cards, believed to be tackles by Aled Davies and Ross Moriarty on George Ford and Piers Francis respectively.

The referee during the Bledisloe Cup match, Jérôme Garcès, showed Barrett a red card in accordance with a revised “sanction framework”, introduced by World Rugby following a summit in Paris in March. Jones has previously been part of the governing body’s law review group, which has looked at ways of enhancing player safety in the tackle, but he believes Barrett’s red card – awarded for a shoulder charge on Michael Hooper – was the wrong decision.

“I thought it was ridiculous,” Jones said. “A bloke gets tackled, he goes to be second man in and his shoulder hits his head and he gets a red card. We can’t have that in the game. What I’m saying is that we need to have some consistency and common sense.”

Updated at 12.27pm BST

12.21pm BST

After the Wales match, Jones did some talking …

On the warm-ups:

These sorts of matches are about developing your own game and I thought the players worked really hard, put in a good display and if you were one of the 80,000 supporters here today you’d be wanting to come back and watch the side play again and that can only be a good thing.”

On Lewis Ludlam:

He’s a good uncomplicated player. He carries hard, tackles hard, his clear out is hard. He looks people in the eye and is a good kid. I was pleased for the young guys playing today. It’s a special moment for them.”

On how none of us should read anything into anything:

The World Cup is six weeks away and we are conscious of that and if you want to go all the way it’s another seven weeks, so that’s 13 weeks. Momentum is hard to carry for that amount of time. So all we want to do is get a little bit better as we go along.

“It’s exciting and we are looking forward to finalising the squad of 31 tomorrow. This game was never going to be a be all and end all selection. You get to know which players are going to be able to do it.”

Updated at 12.24pm BST

12.15pm BST

Speaking of long-term plans etc, and with apologies to anyone clicking in, seeing a list of names and assuming this is the actual squad omigod it’s announced it’s announced, here’s the training squad Jones named in July. Could be interesting for comparison later …

Archive: 4 July – England’s 38-man training squad

Forwards
Dan Cole (Leicester); Luke Cowan-Dickie (Exeter); Tom Curry (Sale); Charlie Ewels (Bath); Ellis Genge (Leicester); Jamie George (Saracens); Maro Itoje (Saracens); Joe Launchbury (Wasps); Courtney Lawes (Northampton); Lewis Ludlam (Northampton); Joe Marler (Harlequins); Ben Moon (Exeter); Brad Shields (Wasps); Kyle Sinckler (Harlequins); Jack Singleton (Saracens); Sam Underhill (Bath); Billy Vunipola (Saracens); Harry Williams (Exeter); Mark Wilson (Sale).

Backs
Danny Cipriani (Gloucester); Joe Cokanasiga (Bath); Elliot Daly (Saracens); Owen Farrell (Saracens); George Ford (Leicester); Piers Francis (Northampton); Willi Heinz (Gloucester); Jonathan Joseph (Bath); Jonny May (Leicester); Ruaridh McConnochie (Bath); Henry Slade (Exeter); Ben Spencer (Saracens); Ben Te’o (unattached); Manu Tuilagi (Leicester); Anthony Watson (Bath); Ben Youngs (Leicester).

In camp for rehabilitation
George Kruis (Saracens); Jack Nowell (Exeter); Mako Vunipola (Saracens).

Updated at 12.18pm BST

11.14am BST

Preamble

Afternoon, all.

The Japan 2019 countdown ramps up today with a good-and-early squad announcement from Eddie Jones. While eyebrows have been raised at the England coach scheduling his announcement quite so far ahead of the 8 September deadline, it’s clear he’s been champing at the bit for this tournament for quite some time.

Back in November 2017 Jones said his backroom team were already up to a 10th draft of their World Cup plan, while he was on top of travel logistics, helped immeasurably by his experience working in Japan. Last May he turned up the heat and humidity at their Bagshot base, and since then every training camp and squad selection has been made while eyeing up the big kick-off against Tonga in Sapporo on 22 September.

So who will make his final 31? As Jones said before the Wales match: “Every day is selection day. We talk to players every day, seeing how they act, how they respond, how much they want to play for England, how they want to be part of a team, how they can develop from being a good club player to an international one. The match against Wales is just one of a number of selection days; no one is going to be selected or not on one match.”

Last Friday Robert Kitson picked a possible 31, a sinfully difficult task while Jones openly admitted he was still weighing up his midfield, full-back and scrum-half options.

Full-back Mike Brown and centre Ben Te’o were dropped from the experimental squad that warmed up so effectively against Wales, which would lessen the shock of their exclusion. Other questions remain, of course. Joe Marler gave the coach sufficient notice of his U-turn on availability … right?

Gloucester scrum-half Willi Heinz, meanwhile, has suddenly risen to help take the tally of players capped by Jones since 2016 to an eye-watering 70. Lewis Ludlam impressed too, while Joe Marchant and Jack Singleton now also have caps that would add substance to their selection.

Injuries, as always, may play a part – Ruaridh McConnochie was widely backed to be on standby for Jack Nowell … until the Bath flyer suffered injury of his own. Henry Slade and Sam Underhill could be nervous too – their setbacks may be minor, but the weekend before a squad unveiling is not the best time to be on the sidelines.

Stand by your beds, folks. Announcement and reaction incoming (due 1pm BST). Let the wild speculation begin.

Who'll be going to Japan? ✈

Find out at 13:00 BST today when we’ll be announcing Eddie Jones’ 31-man England squad 🌹 pic.twitter.com/w6dKLlZ7Ye
— England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) August 12, 2019

Updated at 12.00pm BST

Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.

Already a member? Sign in here