Hallam Amos has received a 21st birthday present to savour by being named in the Wales starting line-up for Saturday’s World Cup clash against England at Twickenham.
Advertisement
Sam Burgess takes over from the injured Jonathan Joseph and will wear the No.12 jersey for his second Test start as Brad Barritt shifts to outside centre.
The 23-year-old Saracens fly-half has been preferred to Bath’s George Ford for the No 10 jersey by head coach Stuart Lancaster for the crucial Pool A game.
Injury-hit Wales, who lost ace goalkicker Leigh Halfpenny and scrum-half Rhys Webb before the tournament started, received an official warning Thursday for training with players from outside their 31-man squad.
“George North is a player I have massive respect for”. “I believe in Stuart and who he has picked”. According to World Rugby, we’ve broken the spirit of the rules, so I don’t know what that means.
“There’s definitely no problem for us to adapt to the changes – the amount of repetitions we put into training, with different combinations, it’s almost becoming instinct”, Watson said. They’re both quite physical, and we will have to be a bit more delicate in how we handle it. It’s about concentrating on what we do.
When Wales go head-to-head with England on Saturday, much of the attention will be on England centre Sam Burgess – who will start the match.
“For this game, we’ve gone with those players”.
Owen Farrell (L) looks on with team mate Sam Burgess during the England captain’s run at Twickenham Stadium on September 25, 2015 in London, England.
In another change to the XV that beat Fiji 35-11, No.8 Billy Vunipola – who like Burgess and Farrell impressed off the bench against the Pacific islanders – will start in place of Ben Morgan, out with a knee injury.
“He contributed well last week against Fiji”, he said.
‘He’s got inexperience at rugby union but not at big occasions, ‘ said Gatland.
He said: “My confidence has grown on the back of what he’s done, the way he’s come on and contributed off the bench”.
But the manner in which he delivered the comments suggested they were a gentle barb aimed at the 33-times capped Wales centre, who also had backed his midfield partner Jamie Roberts to come out on top in the head-to-head battle with Burgess.
Advertisement
“We learnt a lot from that atmosphere and the physicality of the match and I think our last two games against Wales reflected that”. “I’m more than comfortable with that record and it’s about winning on that biggest stage when it really matters – 2013 [when Wales deprived England of a Grand Slam in Cardiff] mattered for Wales and it matters on Saturday”.
