Category: England Rugby

• Hooker joins number of players ruled out
• Alex Mitchell also a doubt for game in Dublin

England have been hit by the loss of their vice-captain, Jamie George, for their Six Nations opener against Ireland on 1 February, with Alex Mitchell also a doubt for the Dublin showdown. Hooker George suffered a hamstring injury in Saracens’ Champions Cup defeat by Castres on Sunday.

The Northampton scrum-half Mitchell sustained a knee problem against Munster on Saturday but could yet feature against Ireland after being taken to the squad’s pre-championship training camp in Girona to continue his rehabilitation.

Continue reading...

• Jones led England to three titles during tenure
• Tuipulotu ruled out of tournament for Scotland

Eddie Jones will cast a critical eye over England’s make-or-break Six Nations campaign with the former head coach signed as an ITV pundit for the forthcoming championship.

Jones was sacked as England head coach in late 2022 and was lined up for a TV job for the 2023 Six Nations, only to agree to an ill-fated spell in charge of Australia. Having left the ­Wallabies in November 2023, he returned to Japan for a second term at the helm of the Brave Blossoms but will join the ITV team for this year’s competition.

Continue reading...

Heavy defeats during the pool stage suggest Premiership teams lack the power of the best French and Irish sides

Five English clubs have made it beyond base camp in the Champions Cup this season, but scaling the distant summit already feels like an impossible dream. While Northampton, Saracens, Leicester, Sale and Harlequins have all secured qualification for the last 16, they will need something truly special if they are to make any kind of impact at the sharp end of the competition.

The sight of Leicester, one of the Premiership’s handful of pool survivors, enduring a record annihilation in Toulouse was just another stark reminder that the bigger French and Irish sides continue to be the tournament’s dominant forces. The last English club to win the title was Exeter in 2020 and there are few obvious signs of the gap closing.

Continue reading...

• Back problem forces 30-year-old to end rugby career
• ‘My body will carry a significant amount of deficiency’

The England and British & Irish Lions wing Anthony Watson has retired from rugby aged 30 on medical grounds, having been advised it was no longer safe to continue playing.

Watson, who brings the curtain down with 56 caps, has been beset by injuries of late with a debilitating back problem proving the final straw. Across a career that began with London Irish in 2011, Watson has been blighted by two long-term achilles layoffs, ACL surgery, more recent calf issues and the back injury that left him in “so much pain”.

Continue reading...

The captaincy is due reward for a fine player – but for Steve Borthwick, it comes with one or two risks attached

England no longer announce their new captains with a grand theatrical flourish. Back in 1996 Bath’s Phil de Glanville had to lie down in the back of the taxi taking him to Twickenham so no one could identify the skipper poised to replace Will Carling before he was unveiled dramatically from behind a large curtain like a nervous contestant in Stars in Their Eyes.

Fast forward to 2025 and Maro Itoje, the 136th man chosen to lead his country, was not even present for his inauguration. People like to talk about spreading the rugby gospel and here was another example of how not to do it. A good news story (if not for poor old Jamie George) and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Itoje to strike a smiling pose for the snappers and propel English rugby back on to the front pages? Nah, we’ll just stick out a bog-standard press release.

Continue reading...

• Coach praises ‘great leader’ who is ‘calm under pressure’
• Radical decision comes before make-or-break Six Nations

Maro Itoje will lead England into the Six Nations after Steve Borthwick made the radical decision to ditch Jamie George as captain and promote the second row before a campaign that promises to make or break the head coach’s tenure.

Borthwick said George was “disappointed” to lose the captaincy after only 12 months in what he described as a challenging conversation with the hooker but explained the decision to appoint Itoje was made on the basis that he is a “world‑class player who has the respect of everybody”.

Continue reading...

With Alex Mitchell back at scrum-half, England could turn opener in Dublin into start of successful campaign

Maybe Elon Musk is the man to revive English rugby union. He already believes he has the solutions to most of the universe’s biggest problems so reforming a mere sports team should be a piece of futuristic cake. Throw £40bn at it, take over the comms department and stick the Rugby Football Union’s finest on a rocket ship to Mars? It’s an easy game, megalomania.

Back in the real world, of course, nothing is ever quite that straightforward. Even AI cannot identify why England keep struggling to maximise their resources because there is no one simple explanation. As Steve Borthwick prepares to unveil his Six Nations squad on Tuesday, it is again less about the individuals per se than finding the right blend to enable the collective to flourish.

Continue reading...

• Recovery delayed by new England deal, says Rob Baxter
• Operation would rule him out of Six Nations

England’s Immanuel Feyi-Waboso is still in two minds about whether to undergo a shoulder operation that could affect his chances of representing the British & Irish Lions this summer. The Exeter wing is scheduled to have surgery next week, which would rule him out of the Six Nations and complicate his dream of touring Australia with the Lions.

Rob Baxter, Exeter’s director of rugby, says the 22-year-old has not yet ruled out postponing the operation and can avoid recurring shoulder issues for the remainder of this season. A decision will need to be taken imminently, however, with Baxter suggesting extensive discussions between club and country are already delaying the process.

Continue reading...

• Shoulder problem could rule wing out of tournament
• Furbank also likely to miss opening match in Ireland

Steve Borthwick has mounting headaches over his back-three contingent before the Six Nations with Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, George Furbank and Ollie Sleightholme all sidelined with injuries

Feyi-Waboso has a dislocated shoulder and with surgery beckoning, he is facing a spell on the sidelines that would rule him out of the Six Nations, dealing Borthwick what would be a major setback before a crucial campaign that begins away to Ireland on 1 February.

Continue reading...

• Former teammate says search echoes own family tragedy
• Voyce believed to have been swept away crossing river

Lawrence Dallaglio has expressed his sorrow after his former England teammate Tom Voyce was apparently swept away while crossing a flooded river, with the Rugby World Cup winner saying it has echoes of his own family tragedy.

Voyce was believed to have died after trying to flee his car when he got into difficulty crossing a ford on the River Aln, near Alnwick, ­Northumberland, during Storm ­Darragh. The 43-year-old was last seen on ­Saturday and a major search involving the emergency services and volunteers continued on Wednesday.

Continue reading...

Tom Voyce, 43, is believed to have died after going into the River Aln in his car, Northumbria police have said

The former England rugby union international Tom Voyce, 43, is believed to have died after going into the River Aln in his car, Northumbria police have said.

The force said officers received a report on Sunday morning that Voyce, who played for clubs including Bath and Wasps, had not returned home after an evening with friends. Northumbria police said it is believed he attempted to cross Abberwick Ford in his car, which was then pulled along with the current of the river. The car has since been recovered but officers did not find Voyce and it is believed he was swept away while attempting to escape and has died.

Continue reading...

Footage from documentary on World Cup heroes shows why they have launched campaign to aid retired players

Rugby can be a tough game to play and, occasionally, a desperately tough subject to write about. Particularly when painful truths are being starkly outlined by the most honest, respected and outwardly resilient of men. And by individuals who, having lifted the 2003 Rugby Rugby World Cup, have enjoyed the ultimate professional high the sport has to offer.

There was precious little to celebrate, sadly, when Phil Vickery popped around for a sitdown chat with his old England front-row pal Steve Thompson as part of a new documentary, Unbreakable: England 2003, released on TNT Sport this week. In a perfect world it would have been an excuse for warm reminiscences and fond memories, a reunion as sweet as the old chariot itself.

Unbreakable: England 2003 premieres on TNT Sports on 11 December.

This is an extract taken from our weekly rugby union email, the Breakdown. To sign up, just visit this page and follow the instructions.

Continue reading...

Beneath headline figures of the chief executive’s bumper income, what does the RFU stand for and want to achieve?

There have been suggestions in recent years, little more than rumours – though plenty of them – that the Rugby Football Union’s chief executive, Bill Sweeney, might have been preparing his exit strategy. That finding a replacement for Eddie Jones could be his parting gift, that negotiating the new eight-year agreement with the Premiership could be his intended legacy. Eventually the whispers grew loud enough that Sweeney publicly denied it and, after it emerged on Monday he was paid £1.1m thanks to the maturation of a bonus three years in the making, we appear to have a pretty good idea as to why.

The first thing to say about Sweeney’s eye-watering raise – a performance-based payment of £358,000 on top of a base salary of £742,000 – is that you can hardly blame him for taking it. Admittedly, he will have likely negotiated the details of the long-term incentive plan that has so lined his pockets but would you really expect him to turn it down? The blame lies with the RFU’s board and remuneration committee for signing off on a scheme that has made Sweeney the best-paid chief executive of a UK sports governing body – excluding payouts – at a time when 42 redundancies have just been made and a loss to reserves of £42m has just been announced.

Continue reading...

Morale-boosting win over Japan cannot conceal issues facing a coach who could be running out of time

As is standard practice, after one last night together, perhaps sharing a collective sigh of relief at ending their losing streak against Japan, England’s players have returned to their clubs. Less common is that the coaches do so too but Joe El-Abd’s Oyonnax are currently third bottom of the French second division and needs must.

That El-Abd will spend most of the next two months in the foothills of the Jura mountains as part of his job-share arrangement is, to borrow a favourite phrase of the Rugby Football Union, suboptimal. Not least because, after the nine-try win over Japan, the captain Jamie George acknowledged what has been obvious to most observers – that England’s defence, nicknamed “the Hammer”, is their biggest work-on. George reckons it is 80% of the way there, but there has been a significant step backwards since Felix Jones was consigned to video analysis purgatory, running hard drives of information across the Irish sea according to Steve Borthwick, as he sees out his notice.

Continue reading...

England eased to a win over Japan to end their losing run

9 mins. The first bit of shape from England has Slade firing a kick in the left corner over the head of Osada, the ball is cleared to touch, but it simply invites the home side back at them. Smith calls a pattern off the lineout via an angled Lawrence run who finds Earl to go over under the posts. A very neat and tidy try.

Smith adds two.

Continue reading...