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• Billy Vunipola, Owen Farrell and Ben Youngs all face Italy• Marler says team can emulate England’s cricketers
Few people, not least several of the players involved, would have accurately predicted England’s lineup for their final World Cup warm-up game in Newcastle. The match‑day 23 to face Italy even contains three players – Joe Marchant, Charlie Ewels and Matt Kvesic – who missed out on Eddie Jones’s 31-man squad for Japan as the management seek to minimise costly 11th-hour injuries.
On the face of it Jones is still taking a risk, having chosen to wheel out pivotal figures such as Billy Vunipola, Owen Farrell and Ben Youngs only 48 hours before the squad depart for Tokyo. Cotton wool supplies around England, either way, are clearly insufficient to protect the giant Vunipola entirely and his coaches insist the Saracens No 8 was more than keen to agree to a fourth start in a row. Continue reading...