France v England - Preview

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England have made two changes to the side that beat Wales with scrum-half Danny Care and prop Mako Vunipola coming into the side.

They take the places of Ben Youngs and Joe Marler, who both move to the bench.

France coach Guy Noves has also made two changes - both in the back row.

Loann Goujon replaces Yacouba Camara at number eight, while Bernard Le Roux makes his first appearance of this Six Nations in place of Wenceslas Lauret.

France head coach Guy Noves: "We need to bring the freshness in the team for Saturday's game.

"I believe in our team. I am sure that our team can take on great challenges.

"I believe our team can compete with the power of the English. This team is young, but we give them our confidence."

England head coach Eddie Jones: "While we are pleased to have already won the championship we don't want to let our foot off the gas.

"The objective has always been to win every game, to be the most dominant team in Europe, so it's been very important for us to approach this week with the same level of intensity we have shown in previous weeks.

"I'm pleased with how we have prepared and with the focus the squad have shown.

"You can't underestimate any team in Test match rugby. France are a dangerous side but we go to Paris full of confidence and a hunger to get the win."

England's only victory at the Stade de France since 2008 was 24-22 in 2012.

The last five Test matches between France and England have all been won by the home side.

France have stopped an opponent from claiming a Grand Slam on four previous occasions, beating England, Wales and Ireland in Paris in 1954, 1965 and 1982 respectively, and Wales in Cardiff in 1988.

They have finished in the bottom half of the table in the last four Six Nations (4th, 6th, 4th, 4th).

They are attempting to win a Grand Slam for the 13th time and for the first time since 2003.

England are bidding to become only the third side to win a Six Nations Grand Slam after playing three of their games away from home - following Wales in 2005 and Ireland in 2009.

They have a poor recent record in matches in which they could have won a Grand Slam, winning only one of their last six opportunities.

France

5-Scott Spedding, 14-Wesley Fofana, 13-Gael Fickou, 12-Maxime Mermoz, 11-Virimi Vakatawa, 10-Francois Trinh-Duc, 9-Maxime Machenaud; 1-Jefferson Poirot, 2-Guilhem Guirado (captain), 3-Rabah Slimani, 4-Alexandre Flanquart, 5-Yoann Maestri, 6-Damien Chouly, 7-Bernard Le Roux, 8-Loann Goujon

Replacements: 16-Camille Chat, 17-Uini Atonio, 18-Xavier Chiocci, 19-Paul Jedrasiak, 20-Wenceslas Lauret, 21-Sebastien Bezy, 22-Jules Plisson, 23-Maxime Medard

England

15-Mike Brown, 14-Anthony Watson, 13-Jonathan Joseph, 12-Owen Farrell, 11-Jack Nowell,10-George Ford, 9-Danny Care; 1-Mako Vunipola, 2-Dylan Hartley (captain), 3-Dan Cole, 4-Maro Itoje, 5-George Kruis, 6-Chris Robshaw, 7-James Haskell, 8-Billy Vunipola

Replacements: 16-Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17-Joe Marler, 18-Kieran Brookes, 19-Joe Launchbury, 20-Jack Clifford, 21-Ben Youngs, 22-Manu Tuilagi, 23-Elliot Daly.

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Nigel Owens (WRU)

Assistant referees: John Lacey (IRFU) & Leighton Hodges (WRU)

TMO: Ben Skeen (NZR)

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Murray Will Be Ready for Italian Job

Conor Murray is “lucky” to be fit for Ireland’s Six Nations match against Italy in Dublin, according to the assistant coach Richie Murphy.

Murray received eight stitches around his eye after being kicked in the face accidentally by full-back Mike Brown in Ireland’s 21-10 defeat to England at Twickenham on Saturday.

Murray sat out training on Tuesday but is expected to face Italy on Saturday week after escaping serious injury in the Twickenham loss. Brown avoided censure after being deemed to have legitimately attempted to kick the ball clear at the ruck when catching Murray in the face, with the scrum-half on the ground after a tackle.

“Conor’s got a split next to his eye, he’s had eight stitches but he’s grand,” said Murphy. “He didn’t train today, we’re just looking after him a little bit.

“He’s obviously a little bit bumped up, he got a bit of treatment in that game, so it’s a case of looking after him. He was lucky obviously it was just in the corner of the eye, but he’s fine and he’ll be ready for next week.”

Jared Payne should be fit for the visit of Italy, with the Ulster centre closing in on a return after hamstring trouble. The 30-year-old missed Ireland’s defeat at Twickenham after damaging his hamstring in the 10-9 loss to France, but is now on course to face the Italians.

“Jared Payne did a full session today, not with the team but with the fitness guys and the medics,” said Murphy, confirming Ireland have no further fresh injury concerns. “He came through that fine and it looks like he’ll be fully fit to start next week.”

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England v Ireland - Preview

England make two changes to the side who beat Italy, with Maro Itoje and Joe Marler coming into the pack.

Itoje makes his first start at lock and prop Marler replaces Mako Vunipola, while uncapped centre Elliot Daly is on the bench.

Ireland hand debuts to centre Stuart McCloskey and flanker Josh van der Flier as they make five changes to the side who lost to France.

Also coming in to the side are Keith Earls, Donnacha Ryan and Mike Ross.

England head coach Eddie Jones: "Playing our first game at Twickenham after two away fixtures will be huge for us. We're determined to put in a strong performance against a clever Irish side who are the benchmark of European rugby."

Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt on attempted mind games by Jones: "I think we're probably less affected by those extraneous things than you people are.

"That's because if we're distracted by that, then that's something that we're wasting energy and time on.

"We get little enough time together as it is. And we're all about making sure that we can be organised, enthusiastic and well-recovered, not distracted.

"People are within their rights to make whatever observation they like from outside the environment. But we know how things are inside the environment."

Head-to-head

England have won four out of the last five meetings against Ireland after only winning one out of the eight games preceding that.

So far in this Six Nations, England have scored more points (55) than the games involving Ireland have provided in total (51).

England are yet to concede a try in this year's Six Nations - restricting both Scotland and Italy to nine points apiece in their two matches so far.

They have started the Six Nations with successive victories for the sixth time in seven years.

Ireland have failed to win their opening two matches of the Five/Six Nations for the first time since 1998, a year in which they picked up the Wooden Spoon.

They scored 82 points in their three away games in the 2015 Six Nations, but managed just nine against France.

England

Mike Brown, Anthony Watson, Jonathan Joseph, Owen Farrell, Jack Nowell, George Ford, Ben Youngs; Joe Marler, Dylan Hartley (captain), Dan Cole, Maro Itoje, George Kruis, Chris Robshaw, James Haskell, Billy Vunipola.

Replacements: Jamie George, Mako Vunipola, Paul Hill, Courtney Lawes, Jack Clifford, Danny Care, Elliot Daly, Alex Goode.

Ireland

Rob Kearney, Andrew Trimble, Robbie Henshaw, Stuart McCloskey, Keith Earls, Jonathan Sexton, Conor Murray; Jack McGrath, Rory Best, Mike Ross, Donnacha Ryan, Devin Toner, CJ Stander, Josh van der Flier, Jamie Heaslip (captain).

Replacements: Richardt Strauss, Cian Healy, Nathan White, Ultan Dillane, Rhys Ruddock, Eoin Reddan, Ian Madigan, Simon Zebo.

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Romain Poite (FFR)

Touch judges: Nigel Owens (WRU) & Alexandre Ruiz (FFR)

TMO: Shaun Veldsman (SARU)

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Set Piece England Success - Eddie Jones

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Eddie Jones picked out his side's set-piece play as the deciding factor in their 15-9 Six Nations victory over Scotland.

In Jones' first game in charge since replacing Stuart Lancaster, England got their Six Nations challenge up and running with a hard-fought win at Murrayfield that also helped ease the memory of their miserable World Cup campaign.

Tries from George Kruis and Jack Nowell, as well as five points from the boot of Owen Farrell, saw England to victory over Scotland, whose response came through three Greig Laidlaw penalties.

Jones was pleased to start his reign with a victory on Saturday and felt the performance of his side's forwards was key to the triumph.

He said of England's set-piece play: "It won us the game in the end. Our line-out was very good in the second half and our scrum really came to life."

He added: "It was always going to be a difficult game, we knew that. We had two weeks together, we were virtually a new team doing new things and I'm really pleased with our application in the second half. Our defence was outstanding and there were some really good individual performances."

Jones singled out the displays of new captain Dylan Hartley, Dan Cole and James Haskell for praise, as well as that of man-of-the-match Billy Vunipola.

He said of the No 8: "Yeah he's pretty handy, Billy. He's not bad is he? He played really well and his work-rate was fantastic, good carries, good defence."

Regarding his side's overall performance, Jones said: "In all honesty, I always thought we were going to win the game. The only way we weren't going to win the game was if we did something silly.

"We wanted to move the ball more, we were practising that, we weren't able to do that and had to play a different way, and that's pragmatic football."

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