Players stake final claim for Japan as Eddie Jones begins to wield axe

Mike Brown and Ben Te’o first to fall in fight for a place in England’s 31-man World Cup squad but more will followEddie Jones believes that fighting spirit will be needed to win a World Cup that the England head coach predicts will be the tightest yet, but not of the sort that led him to cull Mike Brown and Ben Te’o from the squad to prepare for the first of four warm-up matches for the tournament, against Wales at Twickenham on Sunday.Brown, the Harlequins’ full-back, and Te’o, the centre who left Worcester at the end of the season and is expected to finish his career abroad, had moved to th…