64 1GM Friday March 6 2020 | the times
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England will look for their definitive
performance of the Six Nations against
Wales at Twickenham tomorrow, and
they will do so with what appears to be
their best team of the tournament, cer-
tainly a settled one. And that in itself is
a strange thing to say.
One of the starring acts during En-
gland’s World Cup campaign was their
new young partnership at flanker, so
good we tried (and failed) to rename
them in the fashion of a modern duo.
Yet neither Cunderhill nor Undercurry
ever quite worked and, now, the duet is
disbanded anyway.
Tom Curry remains in his new role at
No 8 (don’t question that or Eddie Jones
will get cross) and Sam Underhill is out
of the team altogether because of a
head injury suffered in training.
Nevertheless this team look familiar
partly because, bang on cue, Mark
Wilson has returned to fitness. One of
Wilson’s most eye-catching contribu-
tions in the World Cup was his entry off
the bench against the All Blacks to pull
off, almost immediately, a turnover that
Underhill would have been proud of.
Wilson has to get up to speed quickly
at open-side tomorrow after knee sur-
gery and then only one start for Sale
Sharks. Mind you, Anthony Watson is
straight back into the England starting
XV after injury too, and, likewise, Liam
Williams and Josh Navidi for Wales.
Playing your way into form is a con-
cept that modern coaches and condi-
tioning staff believe can now be done
on the training paddock. The eye will
certainly be on Navidi and Wilson in
opposing back rows; Navidi comes in
for Taulupe Faletau, who is proof that
you can’t always just put your old
national jersey back on and assume
your former majesty. Wales might just
have been a little impatient here.
England, meanwhile, are kind of slot-
ting into place, even if Wilson does have
more experience at No 8 than Curry
(again, it’s safer just to skip past that).
Watson’s return has meant that his
former housemate, Jonathan Joseph,
who started on the wing last time out
against Ireland, is not even in the
matchday 23. Yet, with Watson back,
England have the same back division
that Jones fielded in three big games at
the World Cup.
England also have a revenge mission
to execute. When Jones said yesterday
that “we owe ’em”, he was referring to
England’s second half in Cardiff last
year, a defeat that became a seminal
moment in the development of his side.
More on that further down.
For now, the big noise from the
England camp is that they are hitting
their peak. And yes, there is often a lot
of big noise from England’s Bagshot
high-performance hollow, but Jones
has been saying all tournament that he
has primed his men to be at their best
for this end of the tournament, indeed
Has Jones finally
found side who can
think on their feet?
Owen Slot
Chief Rugby
CorrespondentClub Age Caps
15 Elliot Daly Saracens 27 42
14 Anthony Watson Bath 26 42
13 Manu Tuilagi Leicester 28 42
12 Owen Farrell (c) Saracens 28 82
11 Jonny May Leicester 29 55
10 George Ford Leicester 26 68
9 Ben Youngs Leicester 30 98
1 Joe Marler Harlequins 29 70
2 Jamie George Saracens 29 48
3 Kyle Sinckler Harlequins 26 34
4 Maro Itoje Saracens 25 37
5 George Kruis Saracens 30 44
6 Courtney LawesNorthampton 31 84
7 Mark Wilson Sale 30 18
8 Tom Curry Sale 21 22England
Club Age Caps
15 Leigh Halfpenny Scarlets 31 88
14 George North Ospreys 27 94
13 Nick Tompkins Saracens 25 3
12 Hadleigh Parkes Scarlets 32 28
11 Liam Williams Scarlets 28 62
10 Dan Biggar Northampton 30 82
9 Tomos Williams Cardiff Blues 25 19
1 Rob Evans Scarlets 27 38
2 Ken Owens Scarlets 33 76
3 Dillon Lewis Cardiff Blues 24 25
4 Jake Ball Scarlets 28 45
5 Alun Wyn Jones (c) Ospreys 34 137
6 Ross Moriarty Dragons 25 44
7 Justin Tipuric Ospreys 30 75
8 Josh Navidi Cardiff Blues 29 23Wales
Replacements
Luke Cowan-Dickie Exeter, 26, 23
Ellis Genge Leicester, 25, 17
Will Stuart Bath, 23, 2
Joe Launchbury Wasps, 28, 64
Charlie Ewels Bath, 24, 14
Ben Earl Saracens, 22, 2
Willi Heinz Gloucester, 33, 12
Henry Slade Exeter, 26, 28Replacements
Ryan Elias Scarlets, 25, 12
Rhys Carré Saracens, 22, 7
Leon Brown Dragons, 23, 9
Aaron Shingler Scarlets, 32, 26
Taulupe Faletau Bath, 29, 75
Rhys Webb Bath, 31, 32
Jarrod Evans Cardiff Blues, 23, 6
Johnny McNicholl Scarlets, 29, 3Jones sees the lighter side of
training before Wales’s visitfor this very fixture. “This was always
going to be the crux game of the
Six Nations for us,” he said yesterday,
“so we deliberately had quite a slow
build-up to it so we are at our best this
week.”
A step up from the first half against
Ireland two weeks back would be
impressive. Jones seems convinced that
England can take it. He said: “We have
gone up another level, in terms of
accuracy and the levels we can play at.
We’re not far underneath where we
were at the World Cup in terms of
physical condition and in terms of
the intensity we can potentially play
with.”
Not everyone is on the same page
with this one, though. George Ford de-
scribed this week’s training as “less
perfect than previous weeks”. He said
that they came away from Monday
and Tuesday “a little bit dis-
appointed” and that they were “a
little bit uncomfortable” about
Wednesday’s session too.
However, he added that
“that’s a good thing for us.
You want to be slightly un-
comfortable, slightly on
edge. For this team, it
probably brings the
best out of us.”
Bringing the best
returns us to Cardiff- That was the
game, above all, that set
alarm bells ringing for
Jones that he had a team
who struggled to think
on their feet. They were
10-3 up at half-time but
couldn’t respond tactical-
ly as Wales got under their
skin and then started to
dominate.
That game, Jones said
yesterday, “certainly irks me”. He
said he reckoned it still irked all his
team too.
He also said that it was a hugely influ-
ential day because it exposed where
they had to improve. A massive amount
of work then went into solving prob-
lems and tactical issues mid-game.
Some would say that they still haven’t
mastered this. When Ford was asked
yesterday if he thought England would
reverse the outcome if last year’s
circumstances repeated themselves, he
said, none too convincingly, “We’ll see
but hopefully.”
To win like that would certainly be a
statement of an improved team. That is
what Jones would like to see:
this England coming to boil
in perfect timing for Wales
tomorrow. Quite why they
didn’t do that for France five
weeks ago is another all-too
peculiar matter altogether.
What England surely
won’t have tomorrow is
an opposition side who are
half as meek as Ireland when
they were brought to heel. Yet
if England’s performance
trajectory is as their coach
intended, that may not matter.
Besides the continuity in
selection that England now have
in their starting XV, they also have
this steamroller unit to bring off the
bench. Jones is very much the 6-2
man now: two backs to cover if
necessary with Henry Slade available
for tactical restructuring, and then
those six fresh forwards.
The England bench certainly looks
stronger than Wales’s. Ellis Genge and
Luke Cowan-Dickie have developed a
real appetite for some late-game
destruction, Ben Earl is getting a taste
for it too and Joe Launchbury
isn’t half as nice an opponent as he
looks.
This team are certainly potent
enough to reach the heights that
their coach has set them.Sport Six Nations
Anthony
Watson
Tries for England: 17
First start since the
World Cup final last year.
Replaces Jonathan
Joseph on the
wing839
The Wales team for
tomorrow’s game at
Twickenham actually
have 53 more caps than
England, although
Alun Wyn Jones, the
Wales captain, has 137
of those.786 caps
Total caps for England in
the XV to take on Wales
— the most they have
had in a Test, according
to Simon Gleave, the
head of sports analysis
at Gracenote. That beats
the previous best of 779from two weeks ago
against Ireland. Nine of
their ten most-capped
sides have been from
the past three years.
The outlier, at No 7, is
the XV who beat Wales
in the 2003 World Cup.Anthony
Watson
Tries for England: 17
First start since the
World Cup final last year.
Replaces Jonathan
Joseph on the
wing