Vunipola, Daly passed fit to start for England vs Fiji

Elliot Daly has overcome his “upper body injury” to start on the left wing, enabling Jonathan Joseph to return at outside centre, and Nathan Hughes has recovered from a “lower leg injury” to supply back row cover on the bench.

However, despite suffering upper body soreness, which was the cause of the injury worry, England’s coaches confirmed that he played a full role in their sessions on Tuesday and that there are no doubts over his fitness.

Harrison has ousted Northampton team-mate Tom Wood at openside for Saturday’s clash with Fiji at Twickenham, edging Nathan Hughes to win the third cap of a career that appeared destined for an inglorious end in June. It is understood there is growing consensus that a reduction to a 15-team competition is the best alternative to the status quo, but with South Africa required to surrender as many as two of its five clubs under that scenario, there is little chance of the proposal succeeding.

Instead the Australian, bidding for his 11th straight win as England coach since taking over following last year’s World Cup, wants the team to stick to their forward game, as much associated with the Red Rose in rugby union as fish and chips is with English cuisine. A whiff of hypocrisy?

From Eddie Jones’s perspective every England match is a signpost to the same destination. “It’s only Fiji” is not a mindset Jones is prepared to tolerate from anyone involved. “You’ve got to remember no one plays Test rugby at 100% fit”.

“While we were satisfied with last week’s result against South Africa, there was plenty to improve on”.

“They want to have a kava party”.

Coetzee said: “I always look at when a team gives up, then I’d say the Springboks have lost their aura but there’s no lack of effort”.

The FA is conducting a “proper investigation” into events involving England captain Wayne Rooney and any of its staff following the emergence of “inappropriate” images from The Grove Hotel on Saturday night.

“With the talented athletes we have, if we had a Super Rugby team, we would be right up there”. Jones has already promised to “bore Fiji to death” which makes it clear how he plans on winning the game.

It is still hard to see England failing to chalk up their 11th victory of this calendar year. “Out of those 1,385, there have only been 31 great players”, Jones said. They want to do something that hasn’t been done for a long time in England. “Now we’ve got three in one”.

Ben Ryan, coach of the Fiji Sevens team, is in London at the moment and will be at the England vs Fiji game on the weekend. Josh Matavesi of the Ospreys will start at fly-half behind seven of the same starting pack who posed England some difficulty in the opening game of the World Cup previous year.