Manu Tuilagi and Ollie Lawrence to return for England

Manu Tuilagi and Ollie Lawrence to return for England

England will be boosted by the return of four key players from injury this week — Manu Tuilagi, Ollie Lawrence, George Martin and Luke Cowan-Dickie.

The Times understands that the quartet, who have missed the Six Nations victories over Italy and Wales, are all ready to be reinstated to Steve Borthwick’s England squad.

They will all add ballast to England’s side as they prepare to take on Scotland at Murrayfield a week on Saturday, a team they have not beaten for four years.

Lawrence was in fine form for Bath before his hip injury
Their returns leave England in a good position before their toughest three fixtures, against Scotland, Ireland and France, having won their opening two matches for the first time in five years.
 
The centres Tuilagi, who has had groin trouble, and Lawrence, who has been nursing his hip

Martin, the Leicester lock who can play blind-side flanker, tweaked his knee in mid-January but will also return to England camp when they regather for training on Wednesday after three days off.

Joining him will be the Sale Sharks hooker Cowan-Dickie, who was in Borthwick’s original squad but had to pull out with a health complaint before the tournament began.

Cowan-Dickie, right, is still eligible for England duty after signing for Sale once his Montpellier move was called off
Cowan-Dickie has not played for England since the South Africa Test in November 2022 when he took a heavy blow to the head which compressed his spine and led to a series of neck and shoulder issues.

Since last summer Theo Dan, from Saracens, has been Jamie George’s understudy at hooker.

Borthwick has relied on George heavily, and made him captain for this Six Nations, and has only afforded Dan precious few minutes when he has come on as George’s replacement.

Cowan-Dickie, a British & Irish Lions Test starter in 2021, is far more experienced than Dan, with 41 caps, but has spent a long time away from the international game.

 

After the Italy match, where Borthwick credited the work of his “ball-movers” Dingwall and Slade, the head coach said: “As you can see there are a number of players we have who are really good at creating momentum but some of them are not available for selection so right now we have to balance the players we have and what we are trying to do.”

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