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9 changes as Gatland finally names his Wales team to host England
By Liam Heagney
Warren Gatland has unveiled the Wales team to host England this Saturday in Guinness Six Nations round three, the head coach picking an XV that has nine changes - including the demotion of Dan Biggar and the omission of George North - from the away loss to Scotland last time out. The Welsh were soundly beaten 7-35 at Murrayfield and their preparations for their latest game were affected by the contractual controversy that resulted in a threatened player strike.
That jeopardy over the staging of this weekend’s match at the Principality resulted in Gatland shelving his original plan to name his team on Tuesday. Instead, WRU talks with the players regarding contracts went ahead on Wednesday and only following the resolution that was reached at that meeting were Wales finally in a position to confirm the match will definitely go ahead.
Having since confirmed that the stadium roof will also be opened for the game, in contrast to it being closed for the round one encounter against Ireland, Wales have now named a team that includes the demotion of Biggar to the bench and the start at No13 for the uncapped Mason Grady.
Grady is named in place of the axed North, one of four changes to the backline. Leigh Halfpenny is named at full-back in place of Liam Williams, Louis Reez-Zammit is picked on the left wing in place of Rio Dyer and Owen Williams comes in for Biggar at out-half.
In the pack, Gareth Thomas, Tomas Francis, Alun Wyn Jones, Justin Tipuric and Taulupe Faletau are named at the respective expense of Wyn Jones, Dillon Lewis, Daffyfd Jenkins, Tommy Reffell and Jac Morgan. Gatland said: "There’s some experience coming back into the side with Taulupe Faletau, Justin Tipuric, Alun Wyn Jones and also Leigh Halfpenny.
"And then we ae mixing that with giving players an opportunity. Owen Williams coming in at 10 - we need to find out about that 10 position so Owen gets a chance. We have given Mason Grady a first cap. He is a big lad, he has got some really lovely rugby skills and offloading ability. He os quick, so he is the kind of centre that I think is going to have it all going forward.
"He has got a good rugby head on him. He is still pretty inexperienced so the big message to him has been, 'What is the biggest thing you need to work on?’ He said: 'Keep talking and keep communicating', so that has been the focus for him and I have been really happy with him in training.
"The message to the players has been let’s draw a line in the sand in terms of what has been going on and focus completely on the rugby. We know the history of Wales and England, what that means to everyone in Wales, so we have got to go out there and give a good performance.
"For both teams, this is a massive game because we win on Saturday and we can get things on track a little bit more. For England, it’s a huge game because if you look at their final two games that is a challenge too, so it’s a huge moment in this competition."
Wales (vs England, Saturday - 4:45pm)
15. Leigh Halfpenny (Scarlets – 97 caps)
14. Josh Adams (Cardiff Rugby – 46 caps)
13. Mason Grady (Cardiff Rugby – uncapped)
12. Joe Hawkins (Ospreys – 3 caps)
11. Louis Rees-Zammit (Gloucester Rugby – 22 caps)
10. Owen Williams (Ospreys – 4 caps)
9. Tomos Williams (Cardiff Rugby – 42 caps)
1. Gareth Thomas (Ospreys – 18 caps)
2. Ken Owens (Scarlets – 88 caps) captain
3. Tomas Francis (Ospreys – 68 caps)
4. Adam Beard (Ospreys – 43 caps)
5. Alun Wyn Jones (Ospreys – 156 caps)
6. Christ Tshiunza (Exeter Chiefs – 4 caps)
7. Justin Tipuric (Ospreys – 90 caps)
8. Taulupe Faletau (Cardiff Rugby – 97 caps)
Replacements
16. Bradley Roberts (Dragons – 3 caps)
17. Rhys Carre (Cardiff Rugby – 19 caps)
18. Dillon Lewis (Cardiff Rugby – 47 caps)
19. Dafydd Jenkins (Exeter Chiefs – 3 caps)
20. Tommy Reffell (Leicester Tigers – 6 caps)
21. Kieran Hardy (Scarlets – 16 caps)
22. Dan Biggar (Toulon – 105 caps)
23. Nick Tompkins (Saracens – 25 caps)
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Latest Comments
The only benefit of the draft idea is league competitiveness. There would be absolutely no commercial value in a draft with rugby’s current interest levels.
I wonder what came first in america? I’m assuming it’s commercial aspect just built overtime and was a side effect essentially.
But the idea is not without merit as a goal. The first step towards being able to implement a draft being be creating it’s source of draftees. Where would you have the players come from? NFL uses college, and players of an age around 22 are generally able to step straight into the NFL. Baseball uses School and kids (obviously nowhere near pro level being 3/4 years younger) are sent to minor league clubs for a few years, the equivalent of the Super Rugby academies. I don’t think the latter is possible legally, and probably the most unethical and pointless, so do we create a University scene that builds on and up from the School scene? There is a lot of merit in that and it would tie in much better with our future partners in Japan and America.
Can we used the club scene and dispose of the Super Rugby academies? The benefit of this is that players have no association to their Super side, ie theyre not being drafted elshwere after spending time as a Blues or Chiefs player etc, it removes the negative of investing in a player just to benefit another club. The disadvantage of course is that now the players have nowhere near the quality of coaching and each countries U20s results will suffer (supposedly).
Or are we just doing something really dirty and making a rule that the only players under the age of 22 (that can sign a pro contract..) that a Super side can contract are those that come from the draft? Any player wanting to upgrade from an academy to full contract has to opt into the draft?
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You’ve got the perfect structure to run your 1A and 1B on a quota of club representation by Province. Have some balance/reward system in place to promote and reward competitiveness/excellence. Say each bracket has 12 teams, each province 3 spots, given the Irish Shield winner once of the bottom ranked provinces spots, so the twelve teams that make up 1A are 4 from Leinster, 3 each from Connacht and Munster, and 2 from Ulster etc. Run the same rule over 1B from the 1A reults/winner/bottom team etc. I’d imagine IRFU would want to keep participation to at least two teams from any one province but if not, and there was reason for more flexibility and competitveness, you can simply have other ways to change the numbers, like caps won by each province for the year prior or something.
Then give those clubs sides much bigger incentive to up their game, say instead of using the Pro sides for the British and Irish Cup you had going, it’s these best club sides that get to represent Ireland. There is plenty of interest in semi pro club cup competitions in europe that Ireland can invest in or drive their own creation of.
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