England rugby

Folau, a fundamentalist Christian, was informed by Rugby Australia on Thursday he would be sacked if he could offer no good reason for a social media post that said gay people would go to "hell" if they did not "repent".

Vunipola said he had been told by three people to withdraw his apparent support for Folau's post.

"He's saying how we live our lives needs to be closer to how God intended them to be. Man was made for woman to pro create that was the goal no?," Vunipola wrote on Instagram.

England fell apart in the second half against Scotland as a 31-0 lead was squandered with only a converted injury-time try salvaging a 38-38 draw.

Jones now plans to recruit an expert to work on his team's mentality.

"It's like we have some hand grenades in the back of a jeep and sometimes they go off when there's a lot of pressure," said Jones.

"We have a few of them and we've got to get rid of them."

The centre has not featured for his country since last year's tournament and missed nine months of action due to an ankle injury.

However, Joseph returned for club side Bath this weekend and the 27-year-old – who has scored more tries in Eddie Jones' tenure than any other England player – will travel to Portugal on Wednesday with the rest of the squad.

Joseph has 17 tries in 40 matches for England, who begin their Six Nations in Dublin on February 2.

The BBC is reporting that Mitchell is understood to be Jones' number one target to replace Paul Gustard as England defence coach.

Mitchell is head coach at the Blue Bulls Super Rugby side in Pretoria and was assistant to Clive Woodward with England between 1997 and 2000.

The 54-year-old's contract in South Africa runs until 2019, so an early release would need negotiating.

England have been without a defence coach since Gustard's departure to Harlequins following the tour of South Africa in June.

Vunipola had been nursing the injury throughout the Aviva Premiership while playing for Saracens.

England backrower James Haskell will replace Vunipola and will join the camp following the Premiership final this weekend.

Vunipola, who was born in Australia, has played 34 tests for England and was expected to be the starting number eight for the Lions in their three-test series against the All Blacks.

Lions coach Warren Gatland said he was disappointed for Vunipola, who had been looking forward to joining the squad

The Six Nations champions headed to Dublin in search of a record-breaking 19th Test victory only to barely fire a shot as they fell 13-9 to an Ireland side that could have won by much more.

England are attempting to arrange an additional fixture with the All Blacks at Twickenham in November, but media reacted with scorn to their failure to claim a place in history.

Among the words used to describe the display at the Aviva Stadium were "thuggish", "brain dead", "arrogant", "wrecking balls in chains" and "back to square one".

The group will prepare for tests against South Africa, Fiji, Argentina and Australia later this year.

Hughes was born in Fiji, while Williams was born in Zimbabwe.

Centre Ben Te'o, a New Zealand-born former NRL rugby league player, was also included.

Photo: ITV - Ben Te'o included in England squad

RNZI reports it was only the second time in the competition that Scotland had beaten France.

Defeat means that France, who were defeated 19-10 by Wales a fortnight ago, remain on four points and cannot overhaul Eddie Jones's English side.