Saints star Lawes 'leading by example' on return to England training

Lawes was forced to miss England' s first two Six Nations matches as he had to go through head injury protocols.

In his absence, the Red Rose lost narrowly in Scotland but won comfortably in Italy.

Now England return home to face Wales at Twickenham on Saturday (kick-off 4.45pm).

And Lawes is ready and raring to go as he gets set to make his first appearance in this year's tournament.

“He has been brilliant," said England attack coach Martin Gleeson on Tuesday.

"He has started back training a little while ago and he has been ramping it up slowly.

"He was back out there today doing what he does, leading by example, so it was great to see.”

Lawes' return raises the prospect of two Saints players captaining their country in the same game this weekend as Dan Biggar is Wales skipper.

But when asked whether Lawes would take over as captain from Tom Curry, Gleeson was remaining coy.

“I’ll leave that to Eddie (England boss Eddie Jones,” Gleeson said.

“He (Curry) has led with his actions. I thought last week against Italy he was immense. He was all over the place. He broke records for his GPS the amount of work he got through.

"He has been really, really good for us and whether he is captain or not he will continue to be a pivotal part of the team.”

England will name their team to face Wales at 11.30am on Thursday.

Lawes has been retained but George Furbank has been sent back to Saints and will be available to face Exeter Chiefs at cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens on Sunday afternoon.