Launchbury welcomes competition in England squad


England lock Joe Launchbury says competition for places in the squad will help them ahead of their Series opener against Argentina.

Head coach Eddie Jones has selected a squad with a number of options available at lock and in the loose trio.

“I think that is the way Eddie wants it,” Launchbury told England Rugby.

“If you ask any component of the team the guys are unsure of exactly where they stand and that is exactly the way to bring the best out of each other.

“In the forwards session with Wales there was a lot of chopping and changing in the back five with lots of different combinations and I think that is only going to bring out the best in us.

“There are some permutations about where guys can play in the back five of that scrum, but for me it is just a case of trying to put my best foot forward and trying to get out and impress.

“There’s competition across the second row, there’s competition across the team but that is not anything new for a long while now and if anything that strength is only getting deeper with some of the players coming through.

“For me the challenge has been about always improving. I’m really enjoying playing regularly and being injury free and I’ve managed to do that over the last two years – I feel at times last year I played some of the best rugby of my career."

England have a record of 19 wins in 20 games since Jones took over in November 2015, including a perfect record over Argentina with three victories.

A number of young players were part of the touring squad to the South American country in June when England won 2-0 but Launchbury believes that could motivate the Pumas.

"We’ve actually been preparing for Argentina since the summer camp," he said.

“I’m sure they were very disappointed with that and will come here now right at the end of their long season where they must have played 12-15 internationals since we last played them, so they will be match ready and looking to try and prove a point."

England flanker Chris Robshaw added: “We understand the challenge, especially their forwards and the challenge they bring in that area as they’re traditionally a very strong scrummaging and mauling team, so we’ll be looking to really stop them.

“The benefit of playing Argentina first up is you get a real two-week build-up to them. That first game, no matter what camp we go into we only talk about that.

“We’ve actually been preparing for Argentina since the summer camp when we went into the Lensbury, all we talked about then was Argentina and we’ve continued to do that.

“For us there is not much point in looking any further as we have a three-game opportunity here. There are not many games to go for us over the next couple of years so we have to really hit the ground running this weekend and then we’ll deal with what comes after that."

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