England vs France: Dan Cole ‘responded really well to being left out’, says scrum coach Neal Hatley

Hatley has revealed that the 31-year-old's comeback is reward for his determination to remain a tighthead option for England

England's veteran prop Dan Cole has been given the chance to revive his international career after addressing his weaknesses under instruction from Eddie Jones.

Cole is poised to win his 79th cap and first for nearly a year after ousting Harry Williams from the matchday 23 for Sunday's Guinness Six Nations clash with France at Twickenham.

Scrum coach Neal Hatley has revealed that the 31-year-old's comeback is reward for his determination to remain a tighthead option for England.

"Dan responded really well to being left out. He's hit some of the best numbers we've seen from him in training," Hatley said.

"He's really attacked the areas we've asked him to improve on. He's applied himself hence his reintroduction into the squad. I've stayed in touch with Dan Cole fairly regularly. He's a guy with close on 90 caps and is a British and Irish Lions tourist so his experience is invaluable."

The other front row change sees Ellis Genge make way for Ben Moon as supporting loosehead to Mako Vunipola, with Jones set to reveal his starting XV on Friday morning.

Hatley said: "It's obviously a close call but with the form Dan and Ben have been in - they've gone really well - we think it's a good opportunity to put pressure on Ellis, Harry, Kyle Sinkler and Mako.

"We're really trying to develop strength in depth in the squad because you never know what could happen around the corner. You need not just two deep but four or five deep."

Cole and Moon are superb scrummagers, but Hatley denies their recall has been motivated by the strength of the French set-piece and the danger posed by their giant props Jefferson Poirot and Uini Atonio.

"You can never guarantee who starts, who finishes or how many scrums you'll get," Hatley said.

"In our second Test against Australia we had two scrums in the whole game. There's no point picking an out-and-out scrummaging pack and then have only two scrums."

An injury-enforced change will see either Courtney Lawes or Joe Launchbury start alongside George Kruis in the second row while Maro Itoje recovers from knee ligament damage.

Whichever lock misses out on the starting XV will secure a place on the bench, with Brad Shields the forward likely to be culled from the 25-man training squad retained for Sunday's clash.

Courtney Lawes is in line to start (Getty)

Jones is set to name an unchanged backline but rampaging Bath wing Joe Cokanasiga could feature on the bench at the expense of Chris Ashton having recovered from a knee injury.

Manu Tuilagi retains his place at inside centre after Ben was jettisoned from the 25 on Wednesday night.

"Ben missed the Ireland game with a side strain, so he's just getting over that," Hatley said.

"Manu has done well so there has been some thought into keeping that partnership. But we want to make sure Ben is pushing Manu and Manu is pushing Ben."