Six Nations: Twelvetrees can bloom for England

Published on 30/01/2013 12:00

Uncapped Gloucester centre Billy Twelvetrees is in line to make his England debut in Saturday’s Calcutta Cup showdown with Scotland at 
Twickenham.

With Manu Tuilagi out 
injured, Twelvetrees has been confirmed in Stuart Lancaster’s 23-man match-day squad in preference to the London 
Irish outside centre Jonathan Joseph.

Saracens wing David Strettle has also been recalled, having missed the autumn internationals, which means no place in the squad for Northampton full-back Ben Foden.

Lancaster will confirm his starting line-up tomorrow and Twelvetrees is favourite to come into a reshuffled midfield in place of Tuilagi.

The experiment of using Toby Flood as an emergency inside centre failed in the World Cup quarter-final defeat by France and he would seem destined for a place on the bench.

Lancaster’s other main selection posers are at scrum-half, where Danny Care and Ben Youngs are battling for the nine jersey, and at hooker between Tom Youngs and Dylan 
Hartley.

Youngs, a converted centre, was one of England’s outstanding players when he took over from the injured Hartley in the autumn and that will stand in his favour in selection.