TEAMS
| Mako Vunipola | 1 | Rob Evans |
| Dylan Hartley | 2 | Ken Owens |
| Dan Cole | 3 | Samson Lee |
| Joe Launchbury | 4 | Cory Hill |
| Maro Itoje | 5 | Alun Wyn Jones |
| Courtney Lawes | 6 | Aaron Shingler |
| Chris Robshaw | 7 | Josh Navidi |
| Sam Simmonds | 8 | Ross Moriarty |
| Danny Care | 9 | Gareth Davies |
| George Ford | 10 | Rhys Patchell |
| Jonny May | 11 | Steff Evans |
| Owen Farrell | 12 | Hadleigh Parkes |
| Jonathan Joseph | 13 | Scott Williams |
| Anthony Watson | 14 | Josh Adams |
| Mike Brown | 15 | Leigh Halfpenny |
| Jamie George | 16 | Elliot Dee |
| Alec Hepburn | 17 | Wyn Jones |
| Harry Williams | 18 | Tomas Francis |
| George Kruis | 19 | Bradley Davies |
| Sam Underhill | 20 | Justin Tipuric |
| Richard Wigglesworth | 21 | Aled Davies |
| Ben Te’o | 22 | Gareth Anscombe |
| Jack Nowell | 23 | George North |
AGE
| England | Wales | |
|---|---|---|
| Forwards | 27.4 | 27.3 |
| Backs | 27.0 | 26.0 |
| Bench | 26.8 | 26.0 |
| Overall | 27.0 | 26.4 |
Not much difference between the sides here…
CAPS
| England | Wales | |
|---|---|---|
| Forwards | 50.3 | 34.1 |
| Backs | 47.4 | 24.3 |
| Bench | 21.0 | 29.3 |
| Overall | 39.2 | 29.4 |
England is boasting almost 10 caps per man more than their Welsh counterparts, and that’s even with Alun Wyn Jones’ towering column in the middle of both that chart and the Welsh pack.
HEIGHT
| England | Wales | |
|---|---|---|
| Forwards | 1.90 | 1.90 |
| Backs | 1.83 | 1.84 |
| Bench | 1.86 | 1.86 |
| Overall | 1.87 | 1.87 |
England’s tactic of playing a lock at flanker pays off here, but there’s nothing between the teams overall.
WEIGHT
| England | Wales | |
|---|---|---|
| Forwards | 111.9 | 109.5 |
| Backs | 88.6 | 91.3 |
| Bench | 104.6 | 106.8 |
| Overall | 102.3 | 103.0 |
England have the edge in terms of weight up front, with over 2kg per man on average and a total pack weight of 895kg compared to 876kg for Wales. One other notable point to mention not shown in the graphs – Harry Williams weighs in at 132kg!
Interesting, but I was hoping for an article showing the opinion of who would win the head to heads across the pitch. That would start a debate!
Could be worth considering an article along those lines for future weeks. There’s a combined XV article coming up at 1pm.
Here are my views for tomorrow…
Front 5: England
Back row: Wales
Half-backs: England
Midfield: England
Back three: England
England should dominate in most places, but I’m concerned that the back row is probably the most important of all.
I reckon you have that exactly right Hutch. I would add that across the park I reckon England have the edge in attack and Wales have it in defence – their discipline and organisation in defence last weekend were largely responsible for Scotland looking so poor. I predict the majority of scores to be multiples of 3, at least for the first hour or so. England to breach the Welsh line at least once but that could be the lot try-wise. England by 3 points is my tip.
Forgot to add that, give my expectation for mostly penalties accounting for the score, Wales have the advantage here with young Leigh reliably knocking them over from wide angles and long distance. If England aren’t very careful, my England by 3 tip could very easily turn into Wales by 6.
I never would have thought that Simmonds would weigh as much as Moriarty, or that Harry Williams would weigh more than Mako!!