England name Dylan Hartley captain for Six Nations title defence

England coach Eddie Jones has announced that Dylan Hartley will continue to captain the red rose team for the upcoming Six Nations tournament.

Hartley has not played any competitive match since 3rd December when he was banned for six weeks while playing for his club Northampton Saints following a stiff arm tackle on Leinster's Sean O'Brien.

Even though his latest sanction has taken his total number of suspension weeks to 60, both Jones and Rugby Football Union chief Ian Ritchie had earlier said that it might not affect his chances of captaining in the Six Nations considering the stupendous success he had while leading the team to 13 consecutive wins last year.

Hartley had a chance to feature in the Anglo-Welsh cup to prove his fitness but instead Jones exposed the 30-year-old to a stimulated match last week which was monitored by one of England's back-room staff.

Both Jones and Hartley will head to south London on Wednesday for the launch of the tournament.

Meanwhile, Saracens back-row George Kruis, who was earlier a doubtful starter to the tournament after sustaining a cheekbone fracture is expected to be available for the clash against France on 4th February.

The 26-year-old revealed that he was tempted to return to action in the recently concluded European Champions Cup against Toulon having returned to full training but insisted that he did want to risk.

"It's in the hands of the medics and how I feel. We got a couple of opinions and decided last weekend was too soon. We were pushing for it, but it was just too soon," Kruis said.

"It was a four to six injury. We tried to make it three, so four will be this Friday so it's realistic I'll be up for France.

"I'm not doing full contact yet, I'll build towards that at the end of the week. A week makes a big difference in a four-week injury.

"Fitness-wise I've been able to train fully for three weeks. Sometimes you need some players who are fresh."

England have been on a 14-match unbeaten streak and their success saw them climb to the second position in World Rugby rankings behind the All Blacks.

When asked whether England can replicate their success this year, Kruis said: "We're hungrier this time around. We want to be the number one team in the world and to do that we have to win every game.

"It's definitely going to be harder to win this time because teams try and figure you out.

"We've been together for a year and a half and other teams think they've got a grasp of you, so you've always got to stay ahead of the curve. Everyone wants to try and beat the champs.

"For me it's about the players leading it a bit more. Then you get a better grasp of how you want to play and there's a bit more ownership of how you want to do it.

"Then you get the clarity and off the back of that you can own it a bit more and play like you say."