‘I want the ball in his hands’ – Arundell cleared to start for England

England wing Henry Arundell has been backed to “play super well” in Saturday’s Six Nations clash with Ireland at Twickenham after keeping his place despite a red card last weekend.

Coach Steve Borthwick has kept faith with the 23-year-old after he was shown two yellow cards in the 31-20 Six Nations defeat by Scotland.

Arundell was sin-binned for not releasing his opponent early on in the match and then received a second yellow for taking out Kyle Steyn in the air.

The Bath wing received an automatic 20-minute red card that meant his team-mates played with 14 men for a total of 30 minutes.

Borthwick has made three changes to his starting XV for the Ireland game but kept faith with the exciting wing.

He said: “Saturday [against Scotland] didn’t go the way he wanted it to, the way I wanted it to go for him, and he was bitterly disappointed as we all were. Now we back him to go and play super well this weekend.

“I want the ball in his hands. Every England supporter will want the ball in his hands in a bit of space this weekend.”

A disciplinary hearing on Tuesday found that “no further sanction was appropriate”, freeing Arundell to play.

A statement said: “The player accepted that he had committed the acts of foul play that resulted in the showing of the two yellow cards.

“In the circumstances (including that the first yellow card had been issued for a ‘technical offence’, and that the second yellow card had been issued for a very different act of foul play), [it was decided that] the sending off of the player had been a sufficient sanction.”

There are two things to consider about Arundell keeping his place after a red card.

One is the need for a bit of pace and spark in the back three. Freddie Steward and Tom Roebuck have loads of great parts to their game but neither are blessed with genuine pace.

It’s about balance. Steve Borthwick likes to have one aerial winger (Roebuck, Tommy Freeman) and one with a bit of X-factor (Arundell, Immanuel Feyi-Waboso).