England men's squad for Scotland opener
England men's head coach Steve Borthwick has confirmed his squad for Saturday's Guinness Six Nations opener against Scotland.
England will take on Scotland in the historic Calcutta Cup at Twickenham Stadium on Saturday 4 February (4.45pm KO).
Henry Slade has withdrawn from the squad with a hip injury sustained in Exeter Chief’s game against Castres, before last week’s training camp, and has not recovered sufficiently to be available for selection
Jamie George has been named in the squad and will continue to work through his Graduated Return to Play protocols. Anthony Watson has also been recalled following injury.
The squad has reconvened today [Sunday 29 January] at the Honda England Rugby Performance Centre at Pennyhill Park, Bagshot to prepare for Saturday’s fixture.
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Borthwick said: “This is a very important week for us as we prepare for our first game against Scotland.
“We know that Scotland are an excellent side with a great coaching team led by Gregor Townsend. They’re a settled squad who have been together a long time and have dominated this fixture in recent seasons.
“They will be coming to Twickenham full of confidence.
“We know we have a lot of work to do. The team trained very hard last week and are ready to go again this week. We can’t wait to run out at Twickenham again in front of our incredible supporters.”
Slade and Courtney Lawes will also be in camp this week to continue rehab work.
England v Scotland is live on ITV 1 and BBC Radio 5 Live.
SQUAD
Forwards
Sam Simmonds
Mako Vunipola
Backs
Ollie Hassell-Collins
Joe Marchant
Cadan Murley
Fin Smith
Manu Tuilagi
Ben Youngs