As the fallout from the tunnel fracas before England’s Calcutta Cup defeat rumbles on Ryan Wilson, the Scotland No 8 who clashed with Owen Farrell during the scuffle, has been cited for allegedly making contact with Nathan Hughes’s eye area in a separate incident shortly before half-time.
Wilson faces a Six Nations disciplinary hearing on Wednesday when he will learn his availability for Scotland’s final matches against Ireland and Italy. If he is suspended, the low-end entry point is four weeks, while the high-end ranges from 12-52.
New footage of Saturday’s bust-up in the tunnel involving Wilson and Farrell has emerged. Farrell can be seen running through a crowd of players from both sides while further ahead Wilson appears to say something to George Ford. When Farrell reaches Wilson a scuffle breaks out before the footage, which has been posted on social media, cuts out. It is understood the pair had to be separated by team-mates. England intended to argue Farrell did not instigate the fracas, following a demand from Six Nations Rugby for both unions to explain the incident. Six Nations Rugby will decide if disciplinary action is warranted after considering both responses.
England and Scotland told to explain tunnel fracas involving Owen Farrell
Hughes has not been cited for his role in the on-field incident with Wilson and was on Monday named in England’s 27-man squad alongside Elliot Daly, while the Harlequins prop Kyle Sinckler is also called up. Daly has been sidelined since December because of ankle and calf injuries but his inclusion suggests he will be available to face France on Saturday week when Eddie Jones’s side will seek to put the defence of their Six Nations title back on track.
Daly was expected to miss the whole of the Six Nations but was temporarily back in camp with England before the victory over Wales. His return is a considerable boost for Jones. Daly started all five Six Nations matches last year, all three British & Irish Lions Tests over the summer as well as the three autumn internationals, in which he was among England’s outstanding performers.
Sinckler was named in Jones’s initial Six Nations squad but suffered a hamstring injury shortly before the pre-tournament training camp in Portugal. He was expected to be out of action for up to seven weeks but made his comeback for Harlequins earlier this month.
Jones has been forced to adjust his initial plans for the second fallow week of the Six Nations owing to the bad weather sweeping across the UK and only 19 of the 27-strong squad – including Daly and Sinckler – will attend a three-day camp in Oxford. The remaining eight players will attend regional camps at England’s regular base in Bagshot and at Wasps, Leicester and Saracens with a focus on “reconditioning”. It is in contrast to the previous fallow week in which England arranged two full-blooded training sessions against Georgia.
The Harlequins quartet of Mike Brown, Chris Robshaw, Danny Care and Joe Marler will be in Bagshot, while Mako Vunipola and Richard Wigglesworth will be with Saracens. Joe Launchbury and Dan Cole will be at Wasps and Leicester respectively.
Wales have confirmed they will play a summer match against South Africa in Washington DC before their two-Test tour of Argentina. The game at Washington’s RFK stadium is expected to generate significant revenues with one of Wales’s main sponsors, Under Armour, based nearby in Baltimore.
“The opportunity to expand the already great Welsh support base and Welsh brand is very exciting for us as especially in such a large demographic and audience as the US,” said the WRU chief executive, Martyn Phillips.
The fixture could also indirectly benefit England with the Springboks beginning a three-Test series against Jones’s side in Johannesburg a week later.