Lawes and Francis added to England training squad

Northampton Saints duo Courtney Lawes and Piers Francis have been added to Eddie Jones' England squad for the second training camp of the summer this week. 

Two of five additions to the 31-man squad, 71-time-capped Lawes and 4-time-capped Francis will link up with fellow Saint Lewis Ludlam - who joined the England set-up last week - at The Lensbury Hotel from Sunday (30 June).

And this camp marks for the second week of training for the Red Rose, before the first official Rugby World Cup training camp begins on 7 July. 

Jones said: “It has been a really positive week, we have worked on our fundamentals of the game, a little bit of physical conditioning and I am really pleased with the attitude of the players. They have all come back from their leave in excellent condition and the best I have seen in the time I have been with England.

“Next week we will add some players and be looking to improve our physical conditioning, ability to understand how we want to play the game and start to increase the pressure at training. We have a couple of players going back to their clubs as we feel it is in their best interests in terms of the World Cup to do that, and we will consider their participation in the squad further down the track.”

ENGLAND TRAINING SQUAD

FORWARDS
Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers)
Tom Curry (Sale Sharks)
Alex Dombrandt (Harlequins)
Tom Dunn (Bath Rugby)
Charlie Ewels (Bath Rugby)
Ellis Genge (Leicester Tigers)
Joe Launchbury (Wasps)
Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints)
Lewis Ludlam (Northampton Saints)
Val Rapava Ruskin (Gloucester Rugby)
Nick Schonert (Worcester Warriors)
Brad Shields (Wasps)
Jack Singleton (Worcester Warriors)
Sam Underhill (Bath Rugby)
Mark Wilson (Newcastle Falcons)

BACKS
Mike Brown (Harlequins)
Danny Cipriani (Gloucester Rugby)
Joe Cokanasiga (Bath Rugby)
Elliot Daly (Wasps)
George Ford (Leicester Tigers)
Piers Francis (Northampton Saints)
Willi Heinz (Gloucester Rugby)
Jonathan Joseph (Bath Rugby)
Jonny May (Leicester Tigers)
Ruaridh McConnochie (Bath Rugby)
Dan Robson (Wasps)
Ben Te’o (Worcester Warriors)
Ollie Thorley (Gloucester Rugby)
Manu Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers)
Anthony Watson (Bath Rugby)
Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers)

IN FOR MEDICAL TREATMENT
George Kruis (Saracens)
Jack Nowell (Exeter Chiefs)
Mako Vunipola (Saracens)

England’s official Rugby World Cup training squad will be announced by Jones at Japan House on Thursday 4 July.

The side will then play Wales (11 August) and Ireland (24 August) at Twickenham Stadium and Italy (6 September) in Newcastle as part of the Quilter Internationals as well as an away fixture against Wales (17 August) in Cardiff.