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England make one change in XV to face France, opt for 5/3 split on bench

(Photo by David Rogers/The RFU Collection via Getty Images)

Eddie Jones has made one change to his starting England XV for Sunday’s Autumn Nations Cup final at Twickenham, Anthony Watson replacing the injured Jonathan Joseph on the right wing to face France. It is the most experienced England team of all time with 813 caps

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Jones has also gone for a five/three forwards/backs split on the bench compared to the 6/2 selection used in last Saturday’s win over Wales, Jack Willis losing out to Max Malins and Joe Marchant returning from injury to take the spot of the promoted Watson.

Jonny May continues at left wing and Elliot Daly is at full-back. Captain Owen Farrell stays at inside centre and Henry Slade at outside centre, while George Ford is at fly-half and Ben Youngs at scrum-half.

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Dylan Hartley and Jamie Roberts talk Autumn Nations Cup and what could make rugby a better spectacle

Video Spacer

Dylan Hartley and Jamie Roberts talk Autumn Nations Cup and what could make rugby a better spectacle

England’s unchanged forward pack sees Mako Vunipola, Kyle Sinckler and Jamie George in the front row.  The tight five is completed with Maro Itoje and Joe Launchbury. Tom Curry and Sam Underhill continue as flankers and Billy Vunipola, making his 50th start for England, is at No8.

The other finishers apart from Malins and Marchant are Luke Cowan-Dickie, Ellis Genge, Will Stuart, Jonny Hill, Dan Robson and Will Stuart.

Jones had initially cut his England Nations Cup squad from 33 to 27 on Wednesday evening, omitting four backs and two forwards after training the past two days. The four backs released back to their clubs were Joe Cokanasiga, Alex Mitchell, Ollie Thorley and Jacob Umaga, while the two forwards were Alfie Barbeary and Harry Williams. 

The latest cut on Friday to 23 has seen fit-again midfielder Ollie Lawrence drop out along with forwards Joe Marler, Charlie Ewels and Willis. 

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Six Nations champions England reached the final after topping Pool A with wins over Wales, Ireland and Georgia. Jones said: “We’re really looking forward to this final, playing France and having another chance to win a trophy this autumn.

“We’d like to congratulate the tournament organisers on putting this on in difficult circumstances. Over the past two months, the players have put in real effort, worked very hard on and off the pitch and have met the protocols and new ways of working.

“This has been another positive learning week with tough, hard training and we’re looking forward to getting on the pitch in front of our fans and playing a good game of rugby.”

ENGLAND (vs France, Sunday)
15. Elliot Daly (Saracens, 46 caps)
14. Anthony Watson (Bath Rugby, 45 caps)
13. Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs, 33 caps)
12. Owen Farrell (C) (Saracens, 87 caps)
11. Jonny May (Gloucester Rugby, 60 caps)
10. George Ford (Leicester Tigers, 71 caps)
9. Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers, 103 caps)
1. Mako Vunipola (Saracens, 63 caps)
2. Jamie George (Saracens, 53 caps)
3. Kyle Sinckler (Bristol Bears, 39 caps)
4. Maro Itoje (Saracens, 42 caps)
5. Joe Launchbury (Wasps, 68 caps)
6. Tom Curry (Sale Sharks, 27 caps)
7. Sam Underhill (Bath Rugby, 21 caps)
8. Billy Vunipola (Saracens, 55 caps)
FINISHERS
16. Luke Cowan-Dickie (Exeter Chiefs, 25 caps)
17. Ellis Genge (Leicester Tigers, 22 caps)
18. Will Stuart (Bath Rugby, 7 caps)
19. Jonny Hill (Exeter Chiefs, 3 caps)
20. Ben Earl (Bristol Bears, 7 caps)
21. Dan Robson (Wasps, 6 caps)
22. Max Malins (Bristol Bears, 2 caps)
23. Joe Marchant (Harlequins, 4 caps)

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Flankly 51 minutes ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
N
Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

43 Go to comments
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