Warren Gatland has announced the Wales team to take on England at Twickenham this weekend, in a game that could make or break Pool A.
Liam Williams has recovered from a dead leg sustained against Uruguay and starts at fullback, while Hallam Amos is preferred to Alex Cuthbert on the wing. George North completes the back three.
Gareth Davies partners Dan Biggar at scrum-half, while the centres are as expected – Jamie Roberts and Scott Williams.
Up front Samson Lee is on the bench, with Thomas Francis completing a remarkable rise to start on the tighthead. Scott Baldwin and Gethin Jenkins complete the front row; Alun Wyn Jones and Bradley Davies are in the engine room.
Finally, Justin Tipuric hasn’t done enough to force his way into the starting line-up; he is named on the bench, with the Lydiate-Warburton-Faletau triumvirate preferred.
WALES TEAM TO PLAY ENGLAND
Liam Williams, George North, Scott Williams, Jamie Roberts, Hallam Amos, Dan Biggar, Gareth Davies, Gethin Jenkins, Scott Baldwin, Tomas Francis, Bradley Davies, Alun Wyn Jones, Dan Lydiate, Sam Warburton (Capt), Taulupe Faletau.
Replacements: Ken Owens, Aaron Jarvis, Samson Lee, Luke Charteris, Justin Tipuric, Lloyd Williams, Rhys Priestland, Alex Cuthbert.
Photo by: Patrick Khachfe / Onside Images
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Woohoo! Hallam Amos!!! At last it would seem that Gats is able to believe the evidence of his eyes and see Cuthbert is struggling. Have to put him on the bench due to lack of cover though. No Spikey backs up his original decision on scrum halves. Excellent to see Bradley in there.
Concerned that Lee obviously isn’t fully fit if he is on the bench but Francis won’t be scared of facing up to players he has played against in the league. I, for once, think Lyds is the right choice here given the direct English midfield selection.
In the spirit of the comments on the English team selection blog – This is a side that will get a bonus point win over England. Our world class back three will beat England, slay St George … again. No moaning about selection here please, get behind the boys….etc. etc.
To be fair, i think it’s only Col who is overconfident on the England selection post. Personally i think scrum time is going to go badly (for England) and that has been reinforced with the selection of Bradley Davies along with Thomas Francis.
ha-ha, very amusing Brighty – the dragon slayer will still prevail
Not much point going into a game without confidence Matt, I’m not overconfident just supporting my team rather than knocking them. May the team who plays best win & the Ref have a good game which I expect he will.
The only game a comparison can be drawn from is against Fiji & our performance and result was better than the Aussies…..
I almost believed you there Col until I reread your comment mentioning a bonus pt win for England. Seriously, I can understand you thinking you’re going to win, but a 4 try victory would be pretty unprecedented given both teams relative form over the last 4 years.
I’d also add that Charteris probably isn’t 100% if Bradley gets the nod before him.
Lydiate is the right call for the lineup we’re facing. The forwards bench looks pretty strong (minus Jarvis).
i’ll skip over what I think of our benched backs..
Given we lost a few before the tournament this is pretty much exactly the squad I would have picked for the occasion. Before I was quietly confident about our chances, now I’m very confident of us winning the game.
Good team choice :-(
I’m excited and looking forward to it. Whoever wins I don’t think it will be by many.
Wales have several world class players England only one(Brown).Wales are far more experienced and they will be looking at the white jersey that is so motivational them.60/40 in favour of Wales in my book.Mr Burgess may get a wake up call about what top class international
Union is all about.My name gives away my nationality and I fervently hope I am wrong but I fear I may not be.I have the privelege of being at the game and I wish both teams a great contest that lives long in the memory
It’s a decent enough starting line up, but we’re only 2 knocks away from a nightmare..
LW goes down – Biggar to FB, Priestland at 10?
Centre goes down – Cuthbert on the wing, North in the centre?
Our bench (backs) is just so weak!
You have to assume injury or not these players will feature at some point in the game
What happened to the Welsh being decimated by injuries? You’re what, 4 off of first choice selection there?
Welshman that would start if fit: Lee, Webb, Davies, Halfpenny…. is that it?
England have Tuilagi, Hartley and JJ on that list as well… yes I Hartley isn’t injured and Tuilagi is both injured and banned
Before anyone starts having a go; I said exactly the same in the 6 nations when many were claiming England had an injury crisis and about 3 starters were missing.
Genuinely think Wales might take this looking at both line ups.
We are also missing Morgan, Jacob.
I assume that Lee and Charteris are not starting due to niggles. But who knows, perhaps Bradley Davies and Tomas Francis would have been first choice
Still am slighlty pleased that Charteris and Tipuric are not starting. I don’t think its a co-incidence that Wales’ biggest win over England for some time came with both Warburton and Tipuric on the field.
Presumably Lydiate will be tasked with tackling Burgess and Vunipola all day. I guess if you want someone to do that, you couldn’t ask for better than Lydiate!
Am less pleased at the dropping of Cuthbert. Although hopefully we can target Amos’s relative inexperience at this level.
Not sure the Welsh bench will do much to spark them should they fall behind.
Agreed Pablito.. Our backs on the bench add nothing – no matter at what point we see them.
You also need to target Gareth Davies, limited experience of this type of game in terms of magnitude, and I have a sneaky feeling he’s a yellow card waiting to happen. However, I’d still have started with him, but would probably have benched spikey for that experience he brings.
Probably about the best team we could put out. maybe would have put Mike Phillips on the bench, as davies and williams are very similar.
Anarky, can agree with your injury changes though. If LW down, Amos will go to full back and Cuthbert will come on and is centre goes down, there are 2 choices, put Lloyd williams on the wing and move North in or bring in Priestland to 10 and move Biggar out. which is probably a bit more sensible.
I was half expecting Gats to go for a 5/2 split on the bench just in case it went to uncontested scrums.
Despite all the doom and gloom Wales have put out a decent side, although less experienced in some quarters than you would expect. Surprised Mike “big match player” Phillips is not in the 23, especially as England have gone for Owen “test match animal” Farrell. I guess we’ll see who has picked this right. My gut says Wales, but my head says home advantage should see this limited England side through.
Very happy that LW has passed fit, though how fit remains to be seen seeing as he has only played about twenty minutes rugby in six months !. Charteris would have been my choice with BD on the bench, better line out operator & telescopic arms to disrupt the rolling maul, though BD probably brings more muscle.
Surprised that Philips hasn’t even made the bench, he would have been ideal to bring on @ 60 mins or so, he would feel he has something to prove and would bring a different option ( power & muscle ) to combat the better England benchers.
I still think England will win by a short margin, reason being that the bench is better imho & the fitness issues of both LW and SL ….. though with Tips to come on you never know ……
Can any Welsh fans give us disillusioned England fans some hope? Is LW as good a defensive sweeper as HP is? His positioning is always spot on, so hoping against hope that LW is not.
I’ll give you some hope in the form of our Welsh concerns
– how fit are LW, Samson Lee and Gethin really?
– Tomas Francis – started well in the warmups but looked knackered by halftime
– Burgess – is he the messiah? (serious here, I mean is he just like a Sonny Bill but better and this will be his game?)
– Even we haven’t seen enough of our scrumhalves to know how it’s going to go
– It’s in Twickenham
– Mike Brown is back to almighty form
– Parling could nick our lineouts
– Ken Owens throwing can be wobbly and he doesn’t have the giraffe to aim at
– This is all a ploy by SL – there’ll be a pre-match injury call up for Slade and Ford
– This is like a mini world cup final, lose this and we’ll be distraught and almost definitely going home
And counter that with reasons we’re cheerful
– no Jonathan Joseph, Henry Slade or Burrel to face
– All the talk of Farrel being an excellent kicker seems to forget how good Biggar is. At club level he has higher stats than Halfpenny and his kick and chase is almost like a forward pass to himself. He’s also the match of Farrel in defence
– Gareth Davies is (was?) the quickest runner in the Pro 12 and season b4 last was the highest try score
– We’ve got Tipuric on the bench and Lydiate on the field. Other way around we’d have been just as happy.
– Barrit has run all day at us before and not beaten us
– The RFU have not been able to control tickets like they can in the 6 nations – Twickenham is going to look and sound like Llanelli for the day
– Alun Wyn is back and looking to knock some heads. He has Bradley next to him who’ll knock them even harder
– SL has just knocked Ford’s confidence for 6 so we could make hay out of this beyond just this WC
– This is like a mini world cup final, win this and we’ve got every chance of getting through the group of death
I’d be happy if Burgess was just like a Sonny Bill but not quite as good.. That would still be pretty useful!
Also, interesting point about the make up of the crowd. Home advantage may not be as much as expected.
so looks 50 / 50 Brighty with the crowd the difference, no idea who will have most support but more tickets would have been available via RFU to England fans, either way you have to enjoy the game and the occasion, can’t wait for it.
Seriously the bonus point thing was a wind up & seemed to have worked well, I think my pick was England by 6 on superBru & other than Japan v SA I have been pretty close.
Fair enough Col. My head can’t make it’s mind up, my heart says Wales so I’m going for Wales by 5. I hate predicting less than one score wins as it means I’ll be stressed for the whole match but I can’t see there being enough to separate these two by 20 or more.
I think it’ll be a cracking match though – proper old school NH thunder where there won’t be much basketball but it’ll have an edge, atmosphere and passion that will be unrivalled.
Was feeling sorry for you Brighty – all that flak n’what not but then you come out with
“– This is like a mini world cup final, win this and well win the whole world cup”
Jazus what ARROGANCE!!!!
But seriously – think it’s time people stopped throwing the “arrogance” word around – it’s getting old. I suggest we replace it with – The English are up their own arses!! Pew Pew!!!!
Let me know what you think – is it a runner?
DDD
” Stille nie Aran ! ”
Die verkeerde regmaak – veg vir geregtigheid – KAAPOW !
Brighty’s right though
SA can’t play their way out of a paper bag at the moment
Aus are flaky and don’t know who they should be playing at 10
Kiwis will choke
Ireland will look great and then collapse in the quarter-finals – as always
So yeah, this is pretty much a rehearsal for the world-cup final
WELL !!!! the up your own arsedness of you Pablito!!!!!! Some might call it arrogance!!!! Proves my point – not one ! mark!!!! No over use of emphasising punctuationnnnn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So English of you!!!!!!
I rest my case!!!!!!
DDD
” Stille nie Aran ! ”
Die verkeerde regmaak – veg vir geregtigheid – KAAPOW !
I think hp is better at defence but lw at offence. But tbh that’s because I haven’t seen lw have to defend all that much so bit of a mystery
Garces will be the biggest problem Wales have, he will undoubtedly be under RFU instructions to make sure England go through …… never seen a French ref that gave Wales a decent rub of the green.
I can’t see a French ref, or any ref, taking instructions from the RFU?
Tesco oops no insult intended but what a load of B…..The French hate the English almost as much as the rest of the UK so you can only be scared that he is a good fair ref & will ping you all the time, I have listened to him on Ref mike a couple of times & he is very good at telling the players where they are out of order. Other than Nigel Owens he is the only ref I have not ended up screaming at on TV watching rugby. Garces, Owens and Barnes are the top 3 for me.
Officially ….
Talk about getting your excuses in early. This is almost as bad as us England fans with Steve Walsh
I can just imagine the response of a French ref being given orders by an Englishman
Watch this space Pabs !! …..