Ollie Sleightholme is set to start on the wing for England against France, Telegraph Sport understands, replacing the injured Cadan Murley.
Sleightholme made his England debut off the bench last summer in New Zealand before starting in the autumn against South Africa and Japan. He currently has four Test tries in five appearances.
Murley suffered a foot injury on his England debut against Ireland last Saturday and could still return towards the back end of the Six Nations tournament. Like Murley, Sleightholme will bring real pace to England’s back three, famously catching out New Zealand’s Sevu Reece last summer with an outside break.
Sleightholme is set to be part of a reshuffled backline, with Marcus Smith replacing Freddie Steward at full-back and Fin Smith coming in at fly-half.
Bringing in Sleightholme would increase Northampton’s presence in England’s back line to four players, with Sleightholme joining club team-mates Alex Mitchell, Fin Smith and fellow wing Tommy Freeman. The centre Fraser Dingwall is also part of the squad while George Furbank, the Northampton full-back, is currently recovering from a broken arm but could be available for the end of the Six Nations. “That would be very tight,” Steve Borthwick, the England head coach, admitted last month following his squad announcement for the Six Nations.
Borthwick had also previously discussed the possibility of Steward playing on the wing with Marcus Smith at full-back when he announced his squad.
“We’ve seen steady improvements [from Steward]. He was challenged a good period ago about developing pace and he’s gone away and worked and he’s got faster and improved his pace. So I think Fred on the wing is certainly a possibility, certainly when you start talking about combinations, when you start talking about whether you go six-two [six forwards and two backs on the bench],” Borthwick said at the time.
England’s other changes are set to include a first Test start for Tom Willis at No 8, with a reshuffled back row seeing Ben Earl move to openside flanker.
England probable XV:
M Smith; T Freeman, O Lawrence, H Slade, O Sleightholme; F Smith, A Mitchell; E Genge, L Cowan-Dickie, W Stuart, M Itoje (c), G Martin, T Curry, B Earl, T Willis.
