Manu Tuilagi and Courtney Lawes could add ‘finesse’ for England against Wales

Eddie Jones is hopeful of unleashing Manu Tuilagi and Courtney Lawes against Wales when England’s Six Nations campaign resumes on Saturday week with the head coach optimistic of welcoming back a number of senior players from injury.

Tuilagi continued his comeback on Saturday for Sale and was among their try-scorers against Worcester on his first start since a hamstring injury. Jones was due to speak to the 30-year-old centre as well as the Sale director of rugby, Alex Sanderson, on Tuesday before finalising a training squad for the first fallow week of the competition but he acknowledged Tuilagi would be a significant addition as his side seek to make up for last year’s 40-24 defeat in Cardiff.

Lawes has been sidelined with a head injury suffered in mid-January as he progresses through the return to play protocols. He has been restricted to running and weight training but Jones is hopeful he will be back in full contact training by the end of the week. Lawes led England with distinction against Tonga and South Africa in the autumn in the absence of Owen Farrell and though Tom Curry fulfilled the role against Scotland and Italy, the expectation is that the Northampton forward would resume the captaincy.

Joe Launchbury, who was briefly called into camp last week after two matches for Wasps after a lengthy layoff with a knee injury, is set to come into contention to face Wales, along with Lewis Ludlam, who started against Scotland but suffered a rib injury which ruled him out of Sunday’s 33-0 win over Italy.

Asked which players Jones hoped to have available again, Jones said: “Potentially Launchbury, Tuilagi, Lawes, Ludlam, I’ll have a chat to Alex and Manu and see where they’re at and whether he’s got enough petrol in the