England captain Dylan Hartley unfazed by injury concerns

By Matthew Treadwell

Image: Dylan Hartley during an England training session at Pennyhill Park

England captain Dylan Hartley is confident whoever plays against Fiji will do the country proud after Thursday’s team announcement was delayed due to injury concerns.

Eddie Jones' side face Fiji at Twickenham on Saturday, live on Sky Sports, looking to build on their impressive 37-21 victory over South Africa last weekend.

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The England head coach is waiting on the results of fitness tests undergone by Billy Vunipola, Nathan Hughes and Elliot Daly before naming his starting XV, although Hartley revealed he knows who is likely to get the nod.

"I know the team and the guys know the team, roughly. We have trained well today, prepared well, we have one more day to go but we are looking forward to it," he told Sky Sports News HQ.

"There have been much documented injuries to the second row but we have seen Courtney Lawes and Joe Launchbury come back and do a fantastic job for us.

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Eddie Jones explains why he will not be introducing curfews for England's rugby players following Wayne Rooney's apology for his behaviour on the weekend.

"Whoever plays, I am sure they will do a great job."

Jones enigmatically suggested during his news conference "Fiji want a Cava party, we don't. We want a fish and chip party" and Hartley believes he knows what the Australian means.

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"My basic interpretation of that is we cannot get caught up playing an unstructured game of rugby, Fiji thrive on that," Hartley added.

"We need to play controlled, structured rugby, which doesn't mean it's boring, slow rugby. We still want to play fast, front foot, attacking rugby but we can't get into a loose game."

England rugby head coach Eddie Jones delays naming the side to play Fiji on Saturday because of injury concerns.

As for team discipline - an issue in top-level sport after pictures emerged of England football captain Wayne Rooney at a fellow guests' wedding at the team hotel in the early hours of Sunday morning - Hartley explained how they approach the matter.

"The guys are all adults and we come back here [to the hotel] as a team afterwards. We have got recovery on a Sunday and we have another big game to prepare for," he said.

"We let the guys make their own decisions. As soon as we need to start making rules, we have got an issue.

"We just put in individual responsibility, that's what we do as a team."

Image: Eddie Jones has a leadership group in place and doesn't think curfews will ever be needed

Jones was of a similar opinion, adding: "They are adults. Most of the players have got their own families. They'll come back here, they'll have a few beers and they'll decide when they go to bed.

"The time we have to have a curfew is the time we don't have a leadership group within the team. We've got a great leadership group within the team so we don't need to have curfews."

Watch England v Fiji on Saturday. Coverage begins on Sky Sports 2 HD at 2pm.

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