England have called up uncapped 20-year-old prop Vilikesa ‘Billy’ Sela for the Six Nations to cover a crop of tighthead injuries, while Exeter number eight Greg Fisilau is rewarded for his fine club form with a place in a competitive back row group.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, Gloucester second row Arthur Clarke, who was ruled out of last year’s Six Nations with injury, but won his first cap against the United States in the summer, is included among the second rows.<\/p>\n
Northampton’s uncapped Emmanuel Iyogun, who started both England A fixtures in the autumn, comes in to cover loosehead prop.<\/p>\n
Saracens’ Noah Caluori and Northampton pair George Hendy and Ollie Sleightholme miss out on back-three slots with Bath speedster Henry Arundell, Harlequins’ Cadan Murley and the experienced Elliot Daly preferred.<\/p>\n
Northampton’s George Furbank, who has played only six matches in the last eight injury-dogged months, is also in. <\/p>\n
Leicester’s Adam Radwan’s hopes of inclusion had been ended by an untimely leg injury.<\/p>\n
His Tigers’ team-mate Jack van Poortvliet backs up Alex Mitchell and Ben Spencer at scrum-half.<\/p>\n
There are injury concerns over centre Ollie Lawrence, wing Tom Roebuck, flanker Ben Curry and fly-half Fin Smith – all of whom will rehabilitate alongside the 36-strong squad in the run-up to their tournament opener against Wales on 7 February.<\/p>\n
Loosehead prop Fin Baxter will miss that fixture with a foot injury but should return in time to contribute to the rest of England’s campaign.<\/p>\n
Sela will vie with Trevor Davison to cover Joe Heyes on the opposite side of the scrum.<\/p>\n
Overall, England head coach Steve Borthwick – whose side are on an 11-match, year-long winning streak – is picking from a position of strength.<\/p>\n
Midfield, once an area that lacked depth, now has a clutch of options with Seb Atkinson and Max Ojomoh putting pressure on more established names.<\/p>\n
“We’ve picked a squad with a good balance of experience, leadership and exciting potential,” said Borthwick.<\/p>\n
“The margins in the Guinness Six Nations are incredibly fine so our aim over the coming days is to come together quickly, prepare thoroughly, and make sure we’re ready to perform.<\/p>\n
“If we prepare well and keep demanding the highest levels from one another, it puts us in the strongest possible position when the Championship begins.”<\/p>\n
England finished second last year, their best performance since lifting the trophy in 2020.<\/p>\n
After taking on Wales at Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium, they play Scotland at Murrayfield, return home to face Ireland, then travel to Italy and France.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England have called up uncapped 20-year-old prop Vilikesa ‘Billy’ Sela for the Six Nations to cover a crop…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-387778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}