England coach Eddie Jones has said no player in his side is guaranteed a starting spot but backed his captain Owen Farrell to come back after a poor performance against Scotland on Saturday.
Scotland ended a 38-year wait for a victory at Twickenham on Saturday when they beat England 11-6 on the opening day of the Six Nations.
Farrell, whose last competitive action was his sudden-death extra time penalty against France that won England the Autumn Nations Cup, opted to kick rather than choose overlaps and was overpowered on several occasions by the Scottish pack.
When asked if Farrell’s position was in trouble, Jones said: “Every player is up for selection.
“It’s all dependent on form — you look at historical form, present form and you have to make the right decisions for the team and Owen is no different to any other player.
“Owen was disappointed with his performance against Scotland, like a number of players and like I was in my own performance and we’re all working to improve.
“Owen has been a highly-consistent, highly-successful player for us. Like a number of players on Saturday, he wasn’t at his best. I know there’s a bandwagon.
“He’s an outstanding player and, like any outstanding player, they can have a game where they’re not at their best. Is that a reason to drop the player? I wouldn’t think so.”
Jones reflected on the situation with which led to former captain Dylan Hartley losing his position in the side and said there were a number of factors that went into it.
“We are always trying to make the right assessment. We had to go through a difficult stage with Dylan Hartley when his form was tailing off,” he added.
“We gave Dylan an amount of time to pick up his form but, due to injury and a number of other circumstances, it just wasn’t right for the team.
“It’s the same for anyone who’s the captain of the side, they’ve got to keep performing at a high level.
“But having one game where they’re not at the level expected is not a reason to start speculating on whether he’s going to be dropped or not.”
Jones will announce his team to face Italy on Thursday with Kyle Sinckler and Mako Vunipola back in the squad and up for selection.