England squad announcement: Eddie Jones brings in Chris Ashton for Jack Nowell to face France
England’s Six Nations squad announcement produced a significant change as Eddie Jones welcomes back Chris Ashton to face France this Sunday at Twickenham.
After last weekend’s triumphant performance in Ireland, Jones' side have now been installed as tournament favourites, England will look to make it back-to-back wins when they face France, who suffered an agonising 24-19 defeat by Wales on the opening night of the tournament last Friday.
Maro Itoje has been ruled out with injury, and while Courtney Lawes comes back into the side, Jones has elected to switch Jack Nowell with Ashton on the right wing, with both Joe Cokanasiga and Brad Shields left out.
Hear what Jones and Owen Farrell had to say below.
Good morning and welcomt to The Independent's live coverage of England's squad announcement and press conference ahead of their Six Nations fixture against France this Sunday.
Eddie Jones is due to name his squad at 10am, but we'll have all the build-up that you need before then as well as analysis of the squad afterwards, with Jones also due to talk to the media at 11am.
News has just reached us that the team announcement originally scheduled for 10am has been pushed back to 10:45am.
It's not thought to be down to any late injury concerns, and more due to giving Eddie Jones enough time to inform players of the side, but you never know with these things...
So Jacques Brunel makes six changes to this starting line-up, the most eye-catching of which sees both centres replaced and Mathieu Bastareaud return after just one match out of the squad.
So much for the French revolution.
He's joined in the centre by Geoffrey Doumayrou, which sees young talent Romain Ntamack drop to the bench and Wesley Fofana miss out through injury. Gael Fickou is brought onto the wing with Yoann Huget moved to full-back and Maxime Medard injured, while in the pack the exciting Demba Bamba starts at tighthead prop in place of the injured Uini Atonio, Felix Lambey starts in the second row in place of Paul WIllemse and Yacouba Camara is preferred at blindside flanker to Wenceslas Lauret.
England team to face France: Elliot Daly; Chris Ashton, Henry Slade, Manu Tuilagi, Jonny May; Owen Farrell, Ben Youngs; Mako Vunipola, Jamie George, Kyle Sinckler; Courtney Lawes, George Kruis; Mark Wilson, Tom Curry, Billy Vunipola.
Replacements: Luke Cowan-Dickie, Ben Moon, Dan Cole, Joe Launchbury, Nathan Hughes, Dan Robson, George Ford, Jack Nowell.
The big news is that Chris Ashton has been handed an England recall in place of Jack Nowell as Eddie Jones makes two changes to his starting line-up that will face France on Sunday, with Courtney Lawes replacing the injured Maro Itoje as expected.
The 31-year-old Ashton will make his first start since the autumn international against Japan last November, having ended a four-and-a-half-year absence after returning from France to join Sale Sharks. Furthermore, it will be Ashton’s first Six Nations start since the harrowing 30-3 defeat by Wales in March 2013 that cost England both the title and the Grand Slam.
The wing brings with him a prolific try record, scoring 20 tries in his 43 Test appearances that puts him among the very best among international finishers still playing the game, while he also broke the Top 14 try record during his lone season with Toulon with 24 tries in 23 appearances, surpassing the existing record of 21.
Lawes meanwhile returns to the starting line-up after being demoted to the replacements’ bench against Ireland, having been part of the second row that started against Australia last time out in 2018. The Northampton Saints lock beats Joe Launchbury to the No 4 shirt in Itoje’s absence, with the Saracens lock ruled out of this weekend’s clash with France as well as the 23 February encounter against Wales, but England have not ruled the 24-year-old out of the final two rounds of the championship against Italy and Scotland.
Ahead of his arrival, here's what Eddie Jones has said in the press release:
“After the Ireland game we have had to refocus and reset. Players have been very good and certainly by Sunday we’ll be at our best.
“The French are always an interesting side to play against. They are full of talent, they have a lot of unpredictability so it’s hard to prepare tactically against them so we have had a real focus on ourselves.
“It is unfortunate Maro is injured but he has been rehabbing well so we are hopeful he will be back earlier than maybe first predicted. We have got great depth in the squad so Joe Launchbury and Courtney Lawes will fill his shoes very well.
“We have gone for Chris Ashton on the wing; we think he might sneak us a try early in the game. Jack Nowell was brilliant against Ireland and he’ll play a significant role for us off the bench.
“We can’t wait to play in front of our supporters, I’m sure they will be buoyant by the first round results and we promise we will play a better game on Sunday.”
With the 23-man squad announced, Brad Shields and Joe Cokanasiga are the unlucky pair who miss out on selection, though they will remain with the squad as injury cover for the weekend.
Shields has only just recovered from a side strain suffered in England’s training camp in Portugal a week and a half ago, while Cokanasiga has not played for Bath since December after suffering a knee injury.
Jones is due to speak to media from 11am, which you can follow live here, and we’ll pick the brains of the England head coach on his reasons for swapping Ashton and Nowell and leaving out Cokanasiga and Shields, as well as what he makes of the beefed-up French side.
France is our most important game so we've selected the best 23 for this week. The only reason whe have a 1-15 and 16-23 is because of convention. A couple of guys' roles have changed but they're just as important.
Centres don't play opposite each other, they play left and right centre thsese days so Manu won't be opposite Bastareaud, he just needs to tackle whoever his man is.
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