6 NATIONS TEST RUGBY: Wales v England

09.03.2014

Venue: Twickenham

Referee: Romain Poite (France)

Preview
This is THE clash of the weekend. If the England-Ireland match last weekend wasn’t exciting enough for you then stick around for this one. Both teams enter the fray with 2 wins and a loss and both teams need a win to keep up with Ireland, easily the favourite to take the 6 Nations title.

England is a side that continues to improve. They are a long way from the side that lost by 27 points to Wales at the end of the 2013 6 Nations.

Wales has also been improving and are a different side to that that lost 3-26 to Ireland a month ago. But England has the home advantage with a vocal English support in the stands.

Last Five Encounters
16.03.2013 Wales 30-3 at Cardiff (6 Nations)
25.02.2012 Wales 19-12 at Twickenham (6 Nations)
13.08.2011 Wales 19-9 in Cardiff (World Cup Warm-up)
06.08.2011 England 23-19 at Twickenham (World Cup Warm-up)
04.02.2011 England 26-19 in  Cardiff (6 Nations)

GWC Rugby Rankings
World Table: England 4th, Wales 9th
Europe Table: England 1st, Wales 3rd

IRB Ranking Points
England 85.46, Wales 80.60

Prediction: England by 1 point.

Teams

England
15 Michael Brown, 14 Jack Nowell, 13 Luther Burrell, 12 Williams Twelvetrees, 11 Jonny May, 10 Owen Farrell, 9 Daniel Care, 8 Benjamin Morgan,
7 Christopher Robshaw (Capt), 6 Thomas Wood, 5 Courtney Lawes, 4 Joseph Launchbury, 3 David Wilson, 2 Dylan Hartley, 1 Joseph Marler.
Replacements
16 Thomas Youngs, 17 Mako Vunipola, 18 Henry Thomas, 19 David Attwood, 20 Thomas Johnson, 21 Lee Dickson, 22 George Ford, 23 Alexander Goode
Head Coach: Stuart Lancaster

Wales
15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Alexander Cuthbert, 13 Jonathon Davies, 12 James Roberts, 11 George North, 10 Rhys Priestland, 9 Rhys Webb, 8 Taulupe Faletau, 7 Samuel Warburton (Capt.), 6 Daniel Lydiate, 5 Jake Ball, 4 Alun Wyn Jones, 3 Adam Jones, 2 Richard Hibbard, 1 Gethin Jenkins
Replacements
16 Kenneth Owens, 17 Paul James, 18 Rhodri Jones, 19 Andrew Coombs,
20 Justin Tipuric, 21 Michael Phillips, 22 Daniel Biggar, 23 Liam Williams
Head Coach: Warren Gatland