Saints star Lawes to skipper England against Ireland

Saints star Courtney Lawes will captain England in their Six Nations clash with Ireland at Twickenham on Saturday (kick-off 4.45pm).

Lawes was captain for the win against Wales last month, and he keeps his place this weekend.

England boss Eddie Jones said: “We’ve been looking at this game as a semi-final.

"Ireland are the most cohesive side in the world right now and it will be a good test this weekend.

Courtney Lawes will captain England against Irelandplaceholder image
Courtney Lawes will captain England against Ireland

“We’ve prepared really well for this game. We did some good team togetherness work in Bristol and had a solid week of training on the pitch here.

“We are looking forward to going after them in front of a great home crowd at Twickenham.

"It’s been special having 82,000 supporters back in for our Six Nations games and it will be a great Test match for them.”

England: Steward; Malins, Marchant, Slade, Nowell; Smith, Randall; Genge, George, Sinckler; Itoje, Ewels; Lawes, Curry, Simmonds.

Replacements: Blamire, Marler, Stuart, Launchbury, Dombrandt, Youngs, Ford, Daly.

Ireland: Keenan; Conway, Ringrose, Aki, Lowe; Sexton (c), Gibson-Park; Healy, Sheehan, Furlong; Beirne, Ryan; O'Mahony, van der Flier, Doris.

Replacements: Herring, Kilcoyne, Bealham, Henderson, Conan, Murray, Carbery, Henshaw.

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