Injury puts England's Lawrence out of Italy game

A knee injury rules centre Ollie Lawrence out of England's Six Nations meeting with Italy in Rome on Saturday.

Injury puts England's Lawrence out of Italy game

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Ollie Lawrence will continue his recovery at England's training facility

Chris Jones

Rugby union Correspondent

7 hours ago

Ollie Lawrence will miss England's crucial Six Nations meeting with Italy in Rome on Saturday with a knee injury.

The Bath centre, who started the record 42-21 defeat by Ireland last weekend, has been left out of the 36-man squad preparing to face the Azzurri.

Lawrence missed England's two-day training camp last week and, after consultation with a specialist, has been ruled out of contention.

Tommy Freeman could switch back from the wing to replace him at the Stadio Olimpico, with Henry Slade another outside centre option.

At inside centre Gloucester's Seb Atkinson has been included along with Northampton's Fraser Dingwall, who started the first three Six Nations matches, but there is no place for Max Ojomoh.

Head coach Steve Borthwick is already being forced into a change at scrum-half, with Alex Mitchell unavailable with a hamstring problem.

However George Furbank, who was released by England to play for Northampton on the weekend, has been named in the squad and is expected to start at full-back.

England's hopes of a first Six Nations title since 2020 have been wrecked by chastening defeats away in Scotland and at home to Ireland, but second row Ollie Chessum insists the team can salvage their Championship over the next fortnight.

"Physical intensity is massive and we weren't up to scratch in that aspect of the game. We are going to get ourselves back up to standard [in training] and it will look massively different on the pitch," he told the Rugby Union Weekly podcast.

"We know we have not become a bad team overnight. It is never as good as it seems or as bad as it seems. Success is never linear, there are always ebbs and flows.

"We've been in a tricky spot these last couple of weeks, but when you haven't won for a couple of weeks you want that feeling back, because you know how good it is.

"We've had a little reminder these last couple of weeks of what it is like the be on the other side of the coin and it is not a nice place to be."

England are fourth in the table with two games remaining and, after playing Italy, will face Grand Slam-chasing France on the final day.

Full squad

Forwards: Ollie Chessum, Arthur Clark, Alex Coles, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Chandler Cunningham-South, Tom Curry, Theo Dan, Trevor Davison, Ben Earl, Ellis Genge, Jamie George, Joe Heyes, Maro Itoje, Jack Kenningham, Emmanuel Iyogun, George Kloska, Guy Pepper, Henry Pollock, Bevan Rodd, Sam Underhill

Backs: Henry Arundell, Seb Atkinson, Elliot Daly, Fraser Dingwall, George Ford, Tommy Freeman, George Furbank, Cadan Murley, Raffi Quirke, Tom Roebuck, Henry Slade, Marcus Smith, Fin Smith, Ben Spencer, Freddie Steward, Jack van Poortvliet

Related topics

• England Rugby Union
• Rugby Union
• English Rugby

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