A chest injury to Bath team-mate Jonathan Joseph during England’s tournament-opening 35-11 win over Fiji led Lancaster to rejig his backline for their second Pool A game which has earned its notoriety because of the presence of Australia. That first game; you just want to get it out of the way. That’s not helpful for you from the outside.
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After saying of Williams, “Who’s that?”
He added: “There have been a few personal and team hurdles we’ve had to overcome but the week is here now and as a squad we’re just waiting to get into it as are the fans and England too I suppose”.
“England talk about taking teams to a kill zone, and you have to be able to match that intensity for the whole 80 minutes”.
“By dropping George Ford, England have left out the best attacking option showing they have little or no interest in playing any rugby against the Welsh, ‘ he said”.
“There is no one else involved”.
“Like I said, I will just let my performance do the talking on Saturday (tomorrow)”.
“I think it’s probably the biggest game that we’ll play, unless we meet each other again in the final”. And this is where the decision was made… That is 100 per cent what happened this time.
“Maybe Owen is the right decision to control this match, but George will be pretty devastated because has worked so hard to get that number-one spot”. Lancaster denied that dropping Ford has damaged him.
I would like to see more of George.
“He knows it is all about the team and not about him”.
The Northampton winger was knocked out twice in a Six Nations game between the two sides earlier this year. He kicked a conversion and three penalties as England came from behind to win 16-21.
Lancaster has come under fire, first for selecting Burgess in his 31-man squad and now for giving him a starting berth, and for appearing to switch horses from Ford to Farrell.
“Sam Burgess is a world-class player”, he said. “We scored two tries at the end of the Fiji game and they were a lot to do with Owen and Sam”. I understand the consequences. Wales’ most capped player (116), and most capped World Cup player (15), holds up the front-row on the loosehead, while Tomas Francis has the tighthead.
“He’s got inexperience at rugby (union), but not at big occasions”, Gatland said this week.
Sam Burgess has been named in the centres for England to face Wales.
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I am a bit surprised by it. I am happy to be proved wrong but I am a bit lost with what they are trying to do.
