England's Elliot Daly in at centre as Henry Slade misses Ireland finale

FILE - England's Elliot Daly carries the ball during a training session. Photo: Glyn Kirk/Reuters

FILE - England's Elliot Daly carries the ball during a training session. Photo: Glyn Kirk/Reuters

Published Mar 18, 2021

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LONDON – England have recalled Elliot Daly at outside centre in place of the injured Henry Slade for their Six Nations finale away to Ireland on Saturday.

Slade has been ruled out with a calf problem with Daly, best known as a full-back or wing at Test level, now in midfield after being on the bench for last week's 23-20 win at home to France.

Daly last played at outside centre for England against South Africa in 2015.

But the 28-year-old Saracens star, capped 51 times by England, now finds himself restored to the starting XV after being dropped at full-back in favour of Max Malins.

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Daly impressed after coming on in the second half against France.

His inclusion is the only change to the England XV that ended French hopes of a Grand Slam.

Slade was injured in training on Monday and despite some optimistic forecasts from England that he would be fit for this weekend's clash at Dublin's Lansdowne Road, he has failed to recover in time.

Reigning champions England can no longer mount a successful defence of their Six Nations title following defeats by Scotland and Wales.

But a win away to an Ireland side coached by Andy Farrell, the father of England captain Owen Farrell, would mean they had won three of their five matches in this year's tournament.

"This is our most important game of the tournament and we want to finish well," said England coach Eddie Jones.

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"We're anticipating a hard, tough game against Ireland and we've picked this team to cope with that. We want to take it to Ireland physically and play the rugby we want to play."

England (15-1)

Max Malins; Anthony Watson, Elliot Daly, Owen Farrell (capt), Jonny May; George Ford, Ben Youngs; Billy Vunipola, Tom Curry, Mark Wilson; Charlie Ewels, Maro Itoje; Kyle Sinckler, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Mako Vunipola

Replacements: Jamie George, Ellis Genge, Will Stuart, Jonny Hill, Ben Earl, Dan Robson, Ollie Lawrence, Joe Marchant

Coach: Eddie Jones (AUS)

AFP

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