England captain Owen Farrell has tested positive for Covid 19.
He will be re-tested again today and continues to isolate. The rest of England’s players have tested negative after a member of support staff caused the squad to isolate after a positive case.
Tom Curry (No.8), Ellis Genge (loose-head prop) and Courtney Lawes (blind-side flanker) have been named England vice-captains for the Autumn Nations Series and all start against Tonga.
Manu Tuilagi makes his first appearance for England since March 2020, after coming back from injury, at inside centre, and Henry Slade is outside centre.
England’s autumn fixtures
- England vs Tonga, 3.15pm on Sat 6 Nov
- England vs Australia, 5.30pm on Sat 13 Nov
- England vs South Africa, 3.15pm on Sat 20 Nov
Where to watch the Autumn Nations Series:
Prime members can watch the Autumn Nations Series live from 30th October with the Prime Video app on TVs, mobile devices, Amazon Fire TV, Fire TV Stick, Fire tablets, games consoles, on Virgin’s V6 TV Box, the Talk Talk TV set top box, Apple TV, Chromecast, BT TV or online.
For a list of all compatible devices visit amazon.co.uk/watchanywhere.
England team to play Tonga:
STARTERS: 15. Freddie Steward (Leicester Tigers, 2 caps) 14. Adam Radwan (Newcastle Falcons, 1 cap) 13. Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs, 40 caps) 12. Manu Tuilagi (Sale Sharks, 43 caps) 11. Jonny May (Gloucester Rugby, 66 caps) 10. Owen Farrell (Saracens, 93 caps) 9. Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers, 109 caps) 1. Ellis Genge (Leicester Tigers, 30 caps) 2. Jamie George (Saracens, 59 caps) 3. Kyle Sinckler (Bristol Bears, 44 caps) 4. Maro Itoje (Saracens, 48 caps) 5. Jonny Hill (Exeter Chiefs, 9 caps) 6. Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints, 87 caps) 7. Sam Underhill (Bath Rugby, 24 caps) 8. Tom Curry (Sale Sharks, 33 caps)
FINISHERS 16. Jamie Blamire (Newcastle Falcons, 2 caps) 17. Joe Marler (Harlequins, 72 caps) 18. Will Stuart (Bath Rugby, 12 caps) 19. Charlie Ewels (Bath Rugby, 23 caps) 20. Alex Dombrandt (Harlequins, 1 cap) 21. Alex Mitchell (Northampton Saints, uncapped) 22. Marcus Smith (Harlequins, 2 caps) 23. George Furbank (Northampton Saints, 4 caps)
EDITORS PICKS:
- Alun Wyn Jones gets his scan results and it’s not good news
- All Black legend reveals Dementia diagnosis, aged 41
- Eddie Jones RELEASES Sam Simmonds for Autumn opener
- “Monsters” – Martin Johnson picks his all-time dream forward pack
- LIST: 5 Mad Rugby Conspiracy Theories That Might Actually Be True
“Sick of his attitude” – Five players Eddie Jones will NEVER recall
We look how scrum-half Danny Care and four other prominent players fell foul of the England boss and will likely NEVER played for their country again.
#1. Danny Care
Former England playmaker Kyran Bracken was the first person to reveal why the Quins playmaker was mysteriously frozen out of Jones plans in 2018 despite being a regular up until that point.
“He (Care) made the mistake of speaking his mind to Eddie Jones and questioning how he wanted him to play when he was playing with an England ‘B’ team against Japan in the autumn of 2018,” said Bracken.
“Eddie’s response to that was ‘that’s not the attitude I want’ and he binned him from his plans.”
This story was later backed up by England and Harlequins teammate Mike Brown.
DID YOU KNOW? At age 11 he was invited to join the Academy at Sheffield Wednesday Football Club which meant giving up club rugby union for a fw years