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Six Nations: Ellis Genge comes through training to ease England injury fear ahead of Wales clash

Leicester Tigers prop reported an ankle injury on Thursday but showed no signs of the setback after training at Twickenham on Friday morning

Jack de Menezes
Friday 15 February 2019 17:33 GMT
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Eddie Jones hails 'best Welsh side ever' ahead of Six Nations showdown

England head coach Eddie Jones breathed a sigh of relief on Friday as Ellis Genge came through training unscathed, having reacted “unbelievably well” to treatment after picking up an ankle injury on Thursday.

With Mako Vunipola ruled out of the rest of the Six Nations, England were left sweating when loosehead prop Genge was forced to withdraw from training in London this week, citing a “sore ankle” that prevented him from competing.

In Vunipola’s absence, the only other loosehead option is Exeter Chiefs’ Ben Moon, who only has five international caps to his name.

Genge himself only has one more international appearance – half of which have come as a replacement – but losing him as well as Vunipola would’ve left England extremely light on options to fill the No 1 shirt, with Exeter’s Alec Hepburn the only other experienced option. But scrum coach Neil Hatley revealed that Genge came through Friday’s full session at Twickenham in one piece and remains in full contention for next Saturday’s Grand Slam eliminator against Wales.

"Ellis went fully at it today (Friday) - live set piece, live scrums. He trained and did the whole session," Hatley said.

"He's responded unbelievably well to treatment last night and charged through training today."

Regardless of the injury setback, Genge may not have started in Cardiff after Moon was preferred ahead of him for last week’s victory over France. The 29-year-old Chiefs prop has been a late bloomer on the international stage, but has made a positive impact on Jones’ squad and has rocketed up the pecking order as a result, competing with Genge to be Vunipola’s understudy.

"We saw over the autumn that Moon is a glue player. He does the basics very, very well and he allows the rest of the team to operate around him," Hatley added.

"His set-piece was very good during the autumn and he defended exceptionally well. We all saw the hit on Duane Vermeulen in the South Africa game.

"Ellis is also very aggressive. He's an aggressive scrummager. He has a good ball carrying threat and is explosive. He moves off the line quickly.

Ellis Genge came through training unscathed on Friday to ease England's injury concerns

"What Mako does for this team can't be understated, but we're excited about getting a good 80 minutes at loosehead prop against Wales."

Hatley also provided an update on injured lock Maro Itoje, who continues to tackle his rehabilitation on damaged knee ligaments with incredible speed that could yet see him return three weeks ahead of schedule against Wales.

Eddie Jones watched all 25 of his England squad train on Friday

“Maro is coming along nicely,” Hatley said, having seen Jones tease a possible role for Itoje on the bench at the start of the week if he remains ahead of target. “He's really attacking his rehab.”

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