Lock Courtney Lawes and fullback Mike Brown have been recalled for England’s Six Nations clash with Scotland on Saturday, after recovering from injury, head coach Stuart Lancaster announced on Wednesday.
Northampton forward Lawes has returned to fitness after an ankle problem and is in line to make his first international appearance since England’s 26 / 17 victory over Australia last November.
Harlequins No 15 Brown sat out England’s 9 / 19 defeat by Ireland last time out, after suffering concussion in the 47 / 17 win over Italy, with Alex Goode having taken his place.
Goode drops to the bench, where tighthead prop Kieran Brookes, second row forward Geoff Parling and flank Tom Wood have all been drafted into the matchday squad.
“There’s always a lot of competition for places and having experienced players like Courtney, Tom and Geoff available after playing well for their clubs in the last few weeks adds to our options,” Lancaster said.
“It’s been an intense 2 weeks of training as everyone wants to be on that field on Saturday and we’ve had to make some tough selection calls.”
Brown’s return is a significant fillip for Lancaster, whose side missed the all-action Quins man’s aggression and inventiveness in Dublin.
Lawes replaces George Kruis, who drops out of the squad, and will reprise the second row partnership with Dave Attwood that England deployed throughout the end-of-year internationals.
Brookes has recovered from a hip problem, while Wood is back after an ankle injury and comes in for Tom Croft, who has been sidelined by a dislocated shoulder.
The experienced Parling replaces Nick Easter and provides Lancaster with a specialist second row option on the bench.
England’s loss in Dublin on 1 March left them 2 Log points below leaders Ireland in the table, while Scotland are bottom following successive losses to France, Wales and Italy.
“Coming back to Twickenham will be huge for us and we are determined to put in a performance against a strong and motivated Scotland team,” Lancaster added.
England: 15 Mike Brown, 14 Anthony Watson, 13 Jonathan Joseph, 12 Luther Burrell, 11 Jack Nowell, 10 George Ford, 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Billy Vunipola, 7 Chris Robshaw (Captain), 6 James Haskell, 5 Courtney Lawes, 4 Dave Attwood, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Dylan Hartley, 1 Joe Marler
Replacements: 16 Tom Youngs, 17 Mako Vunipola, 18 Kieran Brookes, 19 Geoff Parling, 20 Tom Wood, 21 Richard Wigglesworth, 22 Danny Cipriani, 23 Billy Twelvetrees.
Date: Saturday 14 March
Venue: Twickenham, London
Kick-Off: 19:00 SA Time (17:00 BST & GMT)
Referee: Romain Poite (France)
Assistant Referees: George Clancy (Ireland), Marius Mitrea (Italy)
TMO: Ben Skeen (New Zealand)
rugby365
No time to do an article now but Scotland have gone with a 6/2 (forward/backs) split for the bench for the Calcutta Cup game:
15 Stuart Hogg; 30 caps, 9 tries, 1 pen, 48 points
14 Dougie Fife; 4 caps, 1 try, 5 points
13 Mark Bennett; 5 caps, 1 try, 5 points
12 Matt Scott; 23 caps, 3 tries, 15 points
11 Tommy Seymour; 15 caps, 6 tries, 30 points
10 Finn Russell; 7 caps, 1 con, 2 points
9 Greig Laidlaw CAPTAIN; 37 caps, 3 tries, 39 cons, 78 pens, 327 points
1 Alasdair Dickinson; 42 caps, 2 tries, 10 points
2 Ross Ford; 83 caps, 2 tries, 10 points
3 Euan Murray; 64 caps, 2 tries, 10 points
4 Jim Hamilton; 59 caps, 1 try, 5 points
5 Jonny Gray; 11 caps, 1 try, 5 points
6 Robert Harley; 13 caps, 1 try, 5 points
7 Blair Cowan; 9 caps, 1 try, 5 points
8 David Denton; 23 caps
Substitutes
16 Fraser Brown; 6 caps
17 Ryan Grant; 20 caps
18 Geoff Cross; 38 caps, 2 tries, 10 points
19 Tim Swinson; 10 caps
20 Johnnie Beattie; 37 caps, 3 tries, 15 points
21 Adam Ashe; 3 caps
22 Sam Hidalgo-Clyne; 3 caps
23 Greig Tonks; 2 caps
Only Hildago Clyne and Tonks as backline options on the bench for Scotland. Strange that Cotter has gone with two loose forwards on the bench. There are a lot of injuries though to our inside backs.
@ Bullscot:
Hidalgo clyne sounds like a james bond villain. 😆
Goodluck to the scots this weekend.
MacroBull wrote:
Hi MacroBull haha, he is a good little player, a scrumhalf who also can take kicks at goal and apparently can also cover on the wing, think though with Laidlaw the captain his progress at international level may be stalled for a while. Plus also have Cusiter and Henry Pyrgos as other options.
3 @ MacroBull:
Thanks think its going to be a tough one. Will be no lack of motivation but England are doing quite well, quite a bit of pessimism in some quarters here especially after the game against Italy.
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