the times | Thursday November 11 2021 79
Sport
Sale’s Rodd
product of the unbeaten Sedbergh
School first XV side captained by the
Bath and Scotland centre Cameron
Redpath, to be given the chance to
make his Test debut.
The Sedbergh team also featured
Exeter Chiefs’ Josh Hodge, the Newcas-
tle Falcons pair of Will Haydon-Wood
and Rob Farrar and outside half Tom
Curtis, who is with Rodd at Sale.
Sedbergh counts the former England
captain Will Carling and World Cup
winner Will Greenwood among its
former pupils.
The prop has made such an impact at
Sale that Alex Sanderson, the club’s
director of rugby, has made him the
first-choice No 1 despite his lack of
professional rugby experience.
Rodd’s point of difference is his
ability over the ball. His high number of
turnovers caught the eye of Eddie Jones,
the England head coach, and Matt
Proudfoot, the forwards coach, who
made a trip to Sale’s training ground to
ensure the youngster did not follow
Redpath’s lead and opt for Scotland.
It did not take long for Ellis Jenkins to
be made captain of Wales again. Having
made a stunning return to Test rugby
on Saturday after a three-year absence
the 28-year-old will lead a Wales side
that features fewer changes than
expected against Fiji on Sunday.
There is only one change in the pack
from the game against South Africa,
with Thomas Young coming in at open-
side flanker for his fourth cap. Taine
Basham moves to No 8, where he has
played a good deal of rugby, in place of
the injured Aaron Wainwright, who is
expected to be fit to face Australia in
Wales’s final autumn match.
Christ Tshiunza, the 19-year-old
Exeter Chiefs lock, is expected to make
his debut off the bench, and in the back
line there is a pleasing return for the
wing Alex Cuthbert, whose previous
Test was in 2017.
Cuthbert, 31, will play on the right
wing, with Louis Rees-Zammit moving
to the left, as Josh Adams is given a runbattle with his one-
time idol, Michael
Hooper (Chris Jones
writes). Underhill is fit
to face Australia at
Twickenham on
Saturday having
recovered from the
shoulder injury that
led to him being
replaced at half-time
in the 69-3 win over
Tonga at the weekend.
The Bath flanker
gave a matter-of-fact
update on his fitness:“Just a bit of a
shoulder injury. I’m
pretty fixed up, the
physios have done a
good job on me this
week, so all good.”
What constitutes a
“bit of an injury” forflankers such as
Underhill and Hooper
would leave the rest of
the population having
to recover on the sofa
this weekend, but
these individuals
relish putting their
bodies on the line.
Underhill is a Hooper
fan having spent his
formative rugby years
watching him steal the
ball or slowing it down
at the contact area.
At 30, Hooper is five
years older than
Underhill and has 117
caps, compared with
the 25 the injury-
plagued Underhill has
won.
“He is one of the
guys, as a young
player, I would look up
to,” Underhill said.
“He has been
outstanding for a long
time so it is great to be
able to play against a
guy like that.”
In the most recent
meeting between the
sides, England
emerged with a 40-16
win in the 2019 World
Cup quarter-final,
making it seven
successive victories
over the Wallabies.
Since that game in
Oita, Japan, Australia
have undergone
significant change,
with the 15-13 loss to
Scotland at the
weekend ending a run
of five wins under
Dave Rennie, the new
head coach.
“I haven’t played
them seven times so
it’s not something I
think about too
much,” Underhill said.
“I don’t think form
matters too much, it’s
a bit of a hot-hand
fallacy. You’ve got to
turn up on the day.
What someone has
done in a previous
game doesn’t matter
too much.
“They are tough,
aggressive, physical
and they contest the
breakdown a lot.
When they have gotthe ball they have
brilliant individuals
who can break tackles.
They have hit a good
run of form, haven’t
they? They just seem
to be a confident side,
which is good to see
because it makes for
good competition.
“The quarter-final is
a bit of a blur. I
remember it being fast
and there being a lot
of ground to cover.
They are a good
attacking team and
they have got some
brilliant individuals
who are very good at
beating defenders.
“Certainly, when
you are defending as a
team you are always
on, you have always
got to be on. In attack
they are a very
physical team and they
hit the breakdown
hard. They obviously
had David Pocock and
Hooper playing,
brilliant back-rowers,
and both of them at
every breakdown.”
Hooper is a rallying
point for the Wallabies
and Underhill believes
that the return of
Owen Farrell to lead
England is important
after the fly half was
forced out of the
Tonga game because
of a false-positive
Covid test. That the
opposition is Australia
adds another
dimension to the game
for Underhill.
“There’s massive
competition there and
it brings an emotional
edge to the game,
which in a contact
sport is always a useful
thing to have,” he said.
“Owen’s a brilliant
guy to have around.
He’s very influential, a
very motivational
character, works hard,
drives people around
him and he brings a
good sense of calm.
“I thought Courtney
[Lawes] was excellent
in stepping into that
role last week.”Underhill takes the ball
into contact against
Hooper at Twickenham in
November 2018, a match
England won 37-18 — the
two flankers will meet
again at the same venue
on Saturday‘Leader’ Jenkins given Wales captaincy
at outside centre alongside Johnny
Williams, who started against New
Zealand in Wales’s first match in this
series. Liam Williams returns at full
back after coming off the bench against
South Africa. Kieran Hardy starts at
scrum half.
In Young, Basham and Jenkins,
Wales will have a back row of
open-side flankers. “It’s not
the biggest back row,”
Wayne Pivac, the Wales
head coach, said. “But
they’re all good over the
ball. It will give us some-
thing different.”
Jenkins, who has cap-
tained Wales twice before,
is seen as a successor to the
injured Alun Wyn Jones.
“Ellis certainly has leadership
qualities,” Pivac said. “The big thing is
for him to keep building on his short
return to the game.”
As for Tshiunza it will be a heart-
warming story for the former pupil at
Whitchurch High School.“He is going to be one to watch, there
is no doubt about it,” Pivac said. “At 19
and 113kg [17st 11lb] he is easily going to
be a 118-120kg player. Just imagine him
in two years’ time.
“If you look at [lock] Ben Carter as
well, those boys are 20 and 19 years of
age, there’s no reason why they
can’t be involved in three
World Cups.”
A British & Irish Lion in
2013, it is some comeback
from Cuthbert, who en-
dured some horrible
abuse at the end of his
last stint with Wales.
“A lot of people who go
away come back different
people,” Pivac said.Wales L Williams; A Cuthbert,
J Adams, J Williams, L Rees-Zammit;
D Biggar, K Hardy; R Carre, R Elias,
T Francis, W Rowlands, A Beard, E Jenkins
(capt), T Young, T Basham. Replacements
B Roberts, G Thomas, WG John,
C Tshiunza, S Davies, T Williams, C Sheedy,
N Tompkins. Referee N Berry (Aus)Steve JamesWales v Fiji
Principality Stadium
Sunday,
kick-off 3.15pm
TV: Amazon Prime Video
Radio: talkSPORTHayden out to
deny his old
team-mate and
partner Langer
Cricket
Elizabeth AmmonAustralia have beaten Pakistan in all
four of their matches in the knockout
stage of global tournaments but despite
having won more trophies than the
other semi-finalists put together,
winning the T20 World Cup still eludes
them.
Coming into the tournament, Aaron
Finch’s team had won only four out of
their past 15 T20s and were by no means
certainties to reach the last four, not
that Finch would agree.
“In this format, if you look over the
last few series, everyone has written us
off by now. About ten days ago our team
was too old and now we are an experi-
enced team,” Finch said. “I don’t think
we’ve exceeded expectations whatso-
ever, we came here with a really clear
plan to win this tournament, and we’re
still alive to do that.”
For Matthew Hayden, the Australia
great who is acting as Pakistan’s batting
consultant, it will be an odd experience
to come up against his home country,
not least because Justin Langer, his old
opening batting partner, is the Austra-
lia head coach.
“It is a very unusual feeling,” Hayden
said. “I was a warrior for Australian
cricket for over two decades, so that
does give me the benefit of having
wonderful insights not only into these
players but also into the culture of
cricket in Australia.”
Pakistan are the most in-form teamin the tournament having won all five of
their group matches, which made it 16
consecutive T20 victories in the UAE,
with the most recent defeat coming
against England in Sharjah in Novem-
ber 2015.
The key figure for Pakistan is their
captain, Babar Azam, who has four
50-plus scores in five innings. Mickey
Arthur, the head coach, has given his
players defined roles and they have
responded by playing with a methodi-
cal approach that has worked well
throughout.
Azam and his opening partner,
Mohammad Rizwan, who have scored
478 of their side’s 813 runs — 59 per cent
— have set the tempo so that
Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik and
Asif Ali can provide the fireworks in the
final overs. Pakistan are the only side in
the tournament to have stuck with the
same team, and are unlikely to change
now.
Australia struggled early on to
balance their side, alternating between
picking an extra seamer or spinner, but
seem to have settled on their best XI by
sticking with three fast bowlers, the
medium pace of Marcus Stoinis and the
spin of Adam Zampa.Australia (probable): David Warner, Aaron
Finch (capt), Mitchell Marsh, Steve Smith,
Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew
Wade (wk), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc,
Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood.
Pakistan (probable): Babar Azam (capt),
Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Fakhar Zaman,
Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Asif Ali,
Shadab Khan, Imad Wasim, Hasan Ali,
Harris Rauf, Shaheen Shah Afridi.
Umpires C Gaffaney (NZ) and
R Kettleborough (Eng).
TV Sky Sports Cricket 1.30pm, starts 2pm.Hayden is acting as
Pakistan’s batting
consultant coachANDREW FOSKER/SECONDS LEFT/SHUTTERSTOCK