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Eddie Jones hopeful of having Tuilagi and Slade fit for visit of Ireland

England head coach Eddie Jones says Manu Tuilagi and Henry Slade are winning their races to be fi...



England head coach Eddie Jones says Manu Tuilagi and Henry Slade are winning their races to be fit for Sunday's Guinness Six Nations clash with Ireland.

They're attempting to recover from groin and ankle injuries respectively ahead of the game at Twickenham where the visitors will have the chance to secure a Triple Crown.

"Manu trained fully so should be in contention for selection, it's good to have a quality player back," the England boss said of the centre's return to training this week.

"Slade also trained so we have just got to monitor his progress. He has a positive chance. He's a quality player. This gives us more options."

But Jones will be without prop Mako Vunipola, who has traveled to Tonga for family reasons:

"Mako's a quality player but we are lucky we are blessed with two outstanding loosehead props in Joe and Ellis, so we can recover the loss of Mako. But it's disappointing to lose him".

Jones has also addressed Wales' complaints about Tadhg Furlong's scrummaging technique following their loss in Dublin a fortnight ago:

"The scrum is the place for the dark arts. What one person sees as right, another person sees as wrong.

"The Welsh are entitled to their opinion. We'll formulate ours and let the referee decide on the verdict.

"Ireland are a good side, extremely well-coached and we really respect them. They were well-coached by Joe Schmidt and Andy is doing a great job now."

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