Charlie Ewels has been banned for three weeks after his red card against Ireland, but his suspension could be cut to two weeks if he completes a tackling technique course.
A disciplinary panel determined that the incident in which Ewels made head-on-head contact with James Ryan – after only 82 seconds of England’s 32-15 defeat at Twickenham on Saturday – was “reckless as a result of the player’s poor tackle technique” and though the entry point for the tackle was six weeks, it was reduced by 50% for mitigating factors such as admitting guilt and showing remorse.
England have this week been collectively working on their tackle technique, seeking to go low against France to avoid another red-card scenario in Paris on Saturday. Provided Ewels follows suit and takes part in a “coaching intervention programme”, he is set to miss only the France match and Bath’s Premiership match against Sale on 26 March.
In Ewels’ absence, Joe Launchbury is the favourite to start in the second-row alongside Maro Itoje in Paris, having come off the bench for his first appearance in 15 months against Ireland. Jones will announce his team on Thursday evening following an afternoon training session designed to acclimatise to Saturday’s late kick-off as well as prepare for next year’s World Cup, with England having arrived in Paris on Tuesday.
With Tom Curry sidelined, the door is open for Sam Underhill to make his first appearance of this year’s championship at openside flanker. Jones will also make changes to his back line, having dropped Max Malins amid England’s misfiring attack. George Furbank and Elliot Daly are among the options to come in.
France will wrap up the grand slam and a first title since 2010 with victory but Jamie George believes that comes with its own pressures for Saturday’s hosts. George made his debut in Paris in 2015 and believes silencing the Stade de France crowd will be key. “There’s a huge amount of pressure on it for those guys,” he said. “The thing we’ve learned is to not get too distracted in the week with reading this and that and expecting this and that to happen. In terms of our psyche, we want to give them something that they’re not going to expect, we want to go there and spoil the party a little bit.
“We’ve got different tactics and ideas about that but fundamentally what we want to focus on is putting an 80-minute performance together that we are proud of because in parts we’ve been brilliant in this Six Nations but also there have been parts that have not been good enough.”
“We want to try and silence that crowd pretty early on,” George added. “We’re aware of how to do that. Physically, not giving them the things they want, and that might put more pressure on to the French team if the crowd isn’t getting behind them. It might start becoming a little bit more difficult for them and they might start second-guessing themselves a little bit. That will all be part of the plan.”
Meanwhile, Sky Sports has announced a four-year deal with Sanzaar to broadcast southern hemisphere rugby union, including England’s three-Test tour of Australia this summer. The deal until 2025 includes rights to home nations summer tours, the Rugby Championship, Super Rugby, The Currie Cup and The National Provincial Championship. As well as showing England in Australia this summer, Sky Sports will televise Ireland’s three-Test tour of New Zealand, Wales’s three-Test tour of South Africa and Scotland’s three-Test tour of Argentina.
