MIKE BROWN HAS been dropped for the first time in the Eddie Jones era after he was left out of England’s 25-man squad for Saturday’s Test against South Africa.
Brown had never been left out of Jones’ first-choice matchday 23 when fit since the Australian took charge of England in 2015.
But the Harlequins full-back, who has 72 caps, will play no part against South Africa despite impressing on the wing when England faced the Springboks in three Tests earlier this year.
Brown’s tenacity and strength have made him a key figure for successive England coaches.
He has scored 13 tries since making his England debut in 2007, but his exclusion now casts doubt over his involvement in next year’s World Cup.
With the 33-year-old out of contention, Elliot Daly is certain to continue at full-back.
Jones will choose two wings from Chris Ashton, Jonny May and Jack Nowell.
If Ashton is picked, he will be making his first international appearance since 2014.
Number eight Ben Morgan has also been released, leaving Bath’s Zach Mercer in position to make his England debut against the Springboks.
Northampton’s Courtney Lawes has been ruled out with a back injury and will remain in Portugal for rehabilitation when England fly home from their training camp.
Forwards coach Steve Borthwick said England were hopeful Lawes would be available for next weekend’s Test against New Zealand.
“He’s feeling positive. He’s done plenty of work already this morning (Tuesday) and is progressing well,” Borthwick said.
England’s squad will be trimmed to 23 on Thursday.
England squad to face South Africa
Forwards: Tom Curry, Charlie Ewels, Jamie George, Dylan Hartley, Alec Hepburn, Maro Itoje, George Kruis, Zach Mercer, Ben Moon, Brad Shields, Kyle Sinckler, Elliott Stooke, Harry Williams, Mark Wilson
Backs: Chris Ashton, Danny Care, Elliot Daly, Owen Farrell, George Ford, Jonny May, Jack Nowell, Henry Slade, Ben Te’o, Manu Tuilagi, Ben Youngs
© Agence France-Presse
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O Halloran should’ve been first one replaced. Caused 2 if not 3 tries when Con were on the up. Very poor effort from more also. It’s like they just didn’t want it today. Pity that.
Connacht will need to stick a plaster on this season and stop the bleed or it’ll run away from them. Poor enough performance, especially at home, but there was something in that game for them if they kept chugging away but they didn’t look like they particularly cared in the last 20 mins. On the plus side it was great to see Buckley back. Hopefully he’ll stay fit for the rest of the season.
@Jim Demps:
It was test of Connacht depth and they don’t have it…
@Cowboy Paddy: the player who caused you the most problems was one of the most experienced. Not really about depth just players making poor decisions
@Chris Mc: he’s struggled this year more than any. I thought he was very poor in the last two European games as well. Really want to see a back three of porch Hansen and Wooten
Bridge too far…
Glasgow had 12 internationals…
Good points is Forde played well, Buckley looked well…
@Cowboy Paddy: Fullback hung his teammates out to dry with a couple of aimless kicks down the centre of the pitch which Glasgow ran back at them and scored.
O’Halloran has developed a way of missing tackles to Connaught expense
That hurt, we were outclassed..by a decent margin
I’ve tons of faith that all of the lads can pull this from this from the fire, but still – ouch
Connacht can be so frustrating to watch. Such a flat performance today. Bad decisions and discipline was very poor at times.
That was really not good enough, it was such poor commitment, there’s no point targeting big champions cup games, performing for 60 mins and then losing, then come back to the league, minus a lot of first string guys, not just those gone with Ireland and play as poor as that, there’s nearly zero positive leadership within the team to grind out a win in those sorts of games, we can sometimes play well, but we far too often play like an amateur side, way too many players just looked like that game didn’t matter.
Shocking performance by Connacht. First half was absolutely appalling. No excuses. Really humbling result.
Such a strange first half of Rugby, its as if both teams didn’t want to win
We were rubbish, there’s no doubt about that but the referee allowed Glasgow to kill that game
The first half took nearly an hour. Every break in play Glasgow managed to kill any momentum or flow by getting medical attention. I think only one player was removed after medical attention
There was one scrum when Glasgow were down to 14 men where the props were allowed nearly a minute to clean their boots
It’s cynical play and no mistake and something that i think needs to be addressed
Nnnn