Courtney Lawes has been called into Eddie Jones’s squad as a replacement for Launchbury but, given that he was not initially selected, Itoje’s chances of a starting role are favourable.
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Ireland, beset by injuries, have yet to win in this Six Nations after drawing with Wales 16-16 and losing 10-9 to France last time out.
Lawes, however, was omitted from the initial England squad for the Ireland game with Maro Itoje named in the 23-man matchday party alongside Launchbury and his Saracens team-mate George Kruis.
The 21-year-old reinforced the Red Rose assault at blindside flanker, replacing Chris Robshaw, but has played most of his senior rugby at lock – the position from which he captained England to victory during the 2014 World Junior Championship.
“I think it’s a competitive position right now, and that’s a good thing”, Borthwick said of England’s second-row area before Launchbury was forced to drop out of the squad.
“We’ve got a mixture of players there with different levels of experience”. Anything you might not be that good at, you keep working at and make yourself better. “Eddie [Jones, England coach] will finalise the selections for the squad and team that we think can win the game this weekend”.
England will return to Twickenham on Saturday for the first time since a 33-13 defeat to Australia in October consigned them to World Cup failure as they became the first host nation in history to suffer a group-stage exit.
“Firstly Elliot’s been playing well, I think he’s come into this environment, and the times he’s been in he’s incredibly competitive”, said Borthwick.
“You want to know what you need to work on”. I said it too but it doesn’t matter what I say, it’s what Eddie says and he has challenged us and now we need to go away and make ourselves world-class players.
“We want our young players to come in, perform and have long, successful careers with England”.
“It’s about being honest and we welcome that as players”.
Mike Brown stands by his comments about England’s lack of world-class players but is confident about the future.
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England head coach Jones had already ratcheted up the tension with the Irish by claiming Schmidt’s side kick 60 per cent of their possession.
