Feyi-Waboso hands England Six Nations injury scare 48 hours before Wales opener
Immanuel Feyi-Waboso has given England a late injury scare before they start their Six Nations campaign against Wales on Saturday after pulling up in training.The Exeter wing was unable to complete England’s session at Pennyhill Park due to a leg injury with Steve Borthwick’s medical staff investigating its extent on Thursday night.If Feyi-Waboso is ruled out, Elliot Daly would appear the most likely candidate to play on the wing against Wales while Borthwick could also move Tommy Freeman from midfield and introduce Henry Slade or Max Ojomoh at centre.A more radical option would be to move Freddie Steward to the wing and select Marcus Smith, who has been named on the bench, at full-back.Cadan Murley of Harlequins was also named in the squad, but is due to appear for England A against Ireland on Friday night.
Losing Feyi-Waboso would be a blow given his form for England and Exeter this season.He started all four of England’s autumn internationals, scoring two tries, and was a constant threat on the wing, reintroducing himself to the international stage after missing last year’s Six Nations with a shoulder injury.For Feyi-Waboso it would be a desperate shame given he is yet to appear for England against Wales, having had the opportunity to choose which of the two nations he would represent.“He’s really keen to be as good as he can be,” said the defence coach Richard Wigglesworth, who confirmed the 23-year-old is a fitness concern.“He’s really coachable, takes feedback really well, wants to learn and he’s got incredible physical commitment as well.
”Jamie George, meanwhile, has said that he did not expect to captain England again after he was restored to the role for Saturday’s match with Maro Itoje named on the bench,Itoje missed the start of England’s training camp in Girona after travelling to Nigeria to attend his mother’s funeral,As a result Borthwick will start Itoje on the bench, with George leading the side on his own for the first time since his Saracens clubmate was appointed captain last January, before the 2025 championship,“It’s a privilege, I love this job, it’s the best thing in the world, being able to do this,” said George, who co-captained the side with George Ford on last summer’s tour of the Americas,“It’s an incredible opportunity to be doing it again.
It’s probably for one week and one week only, so I’m making the most of it.Not a huge amount has changed, the leadership meetings that we have – myself, George, Ellis, Maro – we’re having conversations, I’m speaking to Maro constantly.”England, after 11 straight victories, are red-hot favourites to beat a Wales side who have not won a Six Nations match since 2023.With some bookmakers England are 66-1 on to put Wales to the sword and, while George believes that gives England’s opponents a “free hit”, the 35-year-old hooker has called on his side to embrace the expectation.“While we are looking to use the momentum of the last 12 months we’ve made it very clear that we need to start big and start fast and set the markers down about what this team is going to be moving forward,” he added.
“We haven’t shied away from it.“It’s a free swing [for Wales].When you’re a leader of a team you go looking for what’s going to drive us and I’ve no doubt they’ll be using all the stuff that’s going on in the background, the fact that it’s England v Wales, if I was in their camp I’d probably be saying the same thing.”
Starmer has ‘full confidence’ in Morgan McSweeney, No 10 says amid calls for his sacking – as it happened
Keir Starmer has full confidence in his chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, Downing Street has said.There have been calls by backbenchers for the sacking of McSweeney, whom many blame for his ally Peter Mandelson’s appointment to the ambassadorship.Asked if the prime minister agreed with calls for his chief of staff to be sacked, the prime minister’s official spokesperson said:It’s full confidence.It comes as Downing Street said it was talking with the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) about the process of releasing documents related to Mandelson’s appointment.The spokesperson said:We have begun discussions with the ISC about the process for releasing these documents
Mr Rules hits tipping point as Mandelson proves the one mistake that can’t be undone
It’s beginning to feel terminal. Not that there hasn’t been talk of Labour MPs wanting to remove Keir Starmer before. Just that this time there’s the sense of a tipping point being reached. No more second chances. No praying for a miracle that will never come in the May elections
Former Tory head of London council appointed Reform leader in Wales
Dan Thomas, a former Conservative leader of Barnet council, has been announced by Nigel Farage as Reform UK’s leader in Wales, three months before Senedd elections in which the hard-right party could win the most seats in the country.Farage received a standing ovation before he introduced Thomas at a sold-out rally at the International Convention Centre Wales, near Newport, on Thursday morning. Journalists were jeered and booed during the media conference.Thomas led Barnet council between 2019 and 2022, when the north London council was seized by Labour, and defected to Farage’s Reform party last summer. He stood down in December as a councillor for Finchley Church End – long synonymous with Margaret Thatcher – to move back to his south Wales valleys home town, Blackwood
Starmer apologises to Epstein victims as he seeks to weather Mandelson scandal
Keir Starmer has attempted to reboot his faltering premiership, apologising for appointing Peter Mandelson as US ambassador and urging his MPs to unite behind him.The prime minister gave a lengthy speech on Wednesday about community cohesion, but faced a barrage of questions about his leadership after one of his most turbulent days since entering Downing Street.With his authority over the Labour party and the Commons looking shakier than ever, the prime minister insisted he understood MPs’ concerns and issued a frank apology to victims of Jeffrey Epstein.Starmer said he regretted appointing Mandelson in Washington given his relationship with the financier and convicted child sex offender, about which he said the Labour peer had repeatedly lied.“The victims of Epstein have lived with trauma that most of us could barely comprehend, and they have to relive it again and again
Mandelson sought Epstein’s help in hunt for lucrative roles at Glencore and BP
Peter Mandelson began seeking advice from the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on how to land “highly paid” senior roles with companies including BP and Glencore within days of Labour’s 2010 electoral defeat, emails show.A flurry of messages, sent in the weeks and months following the collapse of the New Labour project, reveal how Epstein mentored Mandelson as the former cabinet minister touted himself for lucrative jobs at global businesses.The emails. released by the US justice department among 3m pages of files on Epstein, lay bare the money-spinning opportunities available to departing ministers.In particular, they reveal Mandelson’s dogged pursuit of a job with the global mining firm Glencore, which became known as the “billionaire factory” thanks to the huge rewards on offer to senior staff from its $60bn stock market float in 2011
What are files from Mandelson’s US ambassador appointment likely to reveal?
It remains to be seen how many documents connected to Peter Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador will be released, and also when they will emerge, given they need to be vetted by parliament’s intelligence and security committee.But when the information does arrive, these are some of the key questions that Labour MPs in particular will be keen to have answered.This is the central issue, albeit one where we do already know one answer. As conceded by Keir Starmer in the Commons on Wednesday, when he made the appointment late last year he knew Mandelson had maintained his links with Epstein even after the disgraced financier had served a jail term for soliciting a minor for prostitution.This was an admission of the obvious, given the fact it had been reported by the media before the ambassadorial appointment was made
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