Eddie adds Launchbury to England squad

SQUAD UPDATE: England boss Eddie Jones has recalled fit-again Joe Launchbury to his squad for next Sunday’s round two Six Nations match away to Italy in Rome.

The 30-year-old Launchbury earned the last of his 69 England caps in the December 2020 Nations Cup final versus France.

He missed last year’s Six Nations with a stress fracture having been initially chosen in the original England squad for the tournament and he then suffered the complete rupture of his anterior cruciate ligament last April.

Launchbury returned to action in recent weeks with Wasps and has now been called up by England as Lewis Ludlam has a rib cartilage problem and won’t be fit to face Italy having started last Saturday versus Scotland.

Jones has yet to confirm the full make-up of his England squad to face the Italians as he was waiting on the completion of covid and medical tests after the players assembled at Pennyhill Park on Tuesday, but there was no Six Nations recall for Manu Tuilagi.

“Just in terms of the squad we will update it fully post the medicals, the players are all coming in now given all the covid regulations etc. But just to give you one update, Joe Launchbury will come in for Lewis Ludlam who has a rib injury and will be out for the next couple of weeks,” said Jones.

“Lewis has got a bit of a rib cartilage injury and all things being equal he will be a reasonable chance to play against Wales,” explained the coach about his injured forward. Regarding the called-up Launchbury, he added: “Joe is a good Test lock. He is an outstanding mauler, he is a guy that is tough around the one-pass play around the ruck and he brings a lot of experience. At the moment experience is not something we have got a lot of.”

Injured when scoring an England try versus South Africa in November, Tuilagi played his first match since then when appearing off the bench last Sunday for the closing 30 minutes of Sale’s Gallagher Premiership win at Harlequins.

Sale boss Alex Sanderson suggested in the aftermath that his player could perhaps do with some additional game time for his club before getting recalled to the England set-up. “Manu came through well but obviously playing in a fully-loaded international match from the start needs building up to,” he said.

On Tuilagi, Jones said on Tuesday: “We will continue to monitor his progress, continue to talk to Sale about how his training volume, his training load is going. We have got to be cognizant of the fact that he is a player over 30 now and we need him to get a bit more game time, a bit more training into him.”

Asked about the chances of Courtney Lawes being involved versus Italy, Jones continued: “Outside at this stage. He is progressing nicely, he has started lifting and running but with all these sorts of injuries the most important thing is the welfare of Courtney and unless he is able to train fully tomorrow [Wednesday] then the likelihood is being fit for Italy is less than 50 percent.”

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