Experimental England team named to face Wales

Experimental England team named to face Wales

Eddie Jones has named an experimental team to tackle Wales at Twickenham on Sunday.

Jones has named two openside flankers in his starting line up with Tom Curry donning the #6 jersey with Sam Underhill at #7. The back row is completed by Billy Vunipola while Willi Heinz earns his test debut in the #9 jersey with George Ford captaining the side at flyhalf.



There is a debut for Ruaridh McConnochie on the wing with Anthony Watson returning to the wing with Elliot Daly at fullback. There are further debuts on the bench for hooker Jack Singleton as well as flanker Lewis Ludlam and centre Joe Marchant.


George Ford (Leicester Tigers) will captain England with 377 caps in the starting XV which includes two debutants. Anthony Watson earns his first Test caps since March 2018 following long-term injury. Luke Cowan-Dickie (Exeter Chiefs) is named at hooker and will make his first start in 12 matches for England.

Jones said: “We have completed our four weeks of pre-season training and now we have moved into four weeks of warm up games ahead of the Rugby World Cup.
 
“Our focus has now changed to match preparation and fitness and creating a game that will stand up to the rigours of the tournament where we have to win seven games in sevens weeks.
 
“Our team selection and tactics in our next four games are all about developing a team capable of winning in Japan and our overarching target of being ready when we get on the plane on the 8th of September to win the World Cup.”
 
“We are looking forward to playing at Twickenham and giving the home crowd something to smile about.”
 
Captain Ford said: “This week we have had some great prep coming off the back of a great 12 days in Treviso where we did a lot of hard work in the heat and in the humidity out there.
 
“To get back here and have a game at the end of the week is great and we have turned our focus to tactically how we want to play the game, what we want to look like defensively and how we want to play with the ball in hand as well. We want to be adaptable and we keep on challenging ourselves in training to do that.”
  
England starting XV


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