With a squad that has already been severely hit with injury, more bad news awaited England fans on Wednesday morning as it was confirmed that Sam Simmonds will miss his country’s next two Six Nations matches.
Head coach Eddie Jones has confirmed the Exeter forward will miss the games away to Scotland and France, but should “hopefully” be fit to face Ireland.
Wasps’ Nathan Hughes is set to start in Simmonds’ absence, after recovering from a knee problem.
“He’s back fit, fresh, but has plenty of work to do,” Jones told BBC 5 live.
Jones added that England had enjoyed an “excellent” scrummaging session against Georgia on Tuesday and that it was “exactly the sort of practice we wanted to have”.
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He said: “They won the early part and maybe we won the later part, so if it was a boxing match it would be a draw.
“The Georgians scrum in a quite unique way, and they are able to transfer pressure without moving their feet, so our front-rowers will have learned a lot today. It was a great learning experience for us.”