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Eddie Jones makes surprise call in the halves for England's quarterfinal showdown
By Online Editors
England have dropped George Ford and named Owen Farrell at fly-half for Saturday’s World Cup quarter-final against Australia, the Rugby Football Union has announced.
Coach Eddie Jones has made three changes in personnel and two positional switches in pursuit of a semi-final against either New Zealand or Ireland.
Mako Vunipola is restored at loosehead prop after successfully making his latest comeback from a hamstring injury against Argentina. England’s last outing after their Pool C finale against France was cancelled due to stormy weather.
Vunipola’s return means Joe Marler drops to the bench where he joins second row George Kruis, who has lost his place in the starting XV to Courtney Lawes.
Despite Ford being one of the form players of the competition to date, Jones has seen fit to revert to playing Farrell at fly-half - a move which didn't bear considerable fruit during this year's Six Nations Championship.
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Farrell’s shift to 10 has seen Manu Tuilagi move from outside to inside centre and allowed Henry Slade to take over in the 13 jersey.
“Australia are a clever team, they will have some specific attacking strategies to play against us so we need to have a great situational awareness," said Jones.
“We need to defend with brutality and when we have the ball we need play on top of them.”
Billy Vunipola has recovered from the ankle injury sustained against Argentina nearly two weeks ago after proving his fitness in training on Wednesday, enabling him to continue at number eight.
Jonny May, who averages a try every two games, wins his 50th cap on the left wing six years after making his debut against Argentina.
“It’s a great achievement and an honour for Jonny and his family. Everyone in the team is really pleased for him,” Jones said.
England's quarterfinal with Australia kicks off at 4:15PM JST on Friday afternoon from Oita.
England: Elliot Daly, Anthony Watson, Henry Slade, Manu Tuilagi, Jonny May, Owen Farrell, Ben Youngs, Billy Vunipola, Sam Underhill, Tom Curry, Courtney Lawes, Maro Itoje, Kyle Sinckler, Jamie George, Mako Vunipola. Reserves: Luke Cowan-Dickie, Joe Marler, Dan Cole, George Kruis, Lewis Ludlam, Willi Heinz, George Ford, Jonathan Joseph.
- PA
Further up the country, England's Six Nations compatriots are preparing for a sudden-death showdown with the All Blacks:
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Latest Comments
It is if he thinks he’s got hold of the ball and there is at least one other player between him and the ball carrier, which is why he has to reach around and over their heads. Not a deliberate action for me.
Go to commentsI understand, but England 30 years ago were a set piece focused kick heavy team not big on using backs.
Same as now.
South African sides from any period will have a big bunch of forwards smashing it up and a first five booting everything in their own half.
NZ until recently rarely if ever scrummed for penalties; the scrum is to attack from, broken play, not structured is what we’re after.
Same as now.
These are ways of playing very ingrained into the culture.
If you were in an English club team and were off to Fiji for a game against a club team you’d never heard of and had no footage of, how would you prepare?
For a forward dominated grind or would you assume they will throw the ball about because they are Fijian?
A Fiji way. An English way.
An Australian way depends on who you’ve scraped together that hasn’t been picked off by AFL or NRL, and that changes from generation to generation a lot of the time.
Actually, maybe that is their style. In fact, yes they have a style.
Nevermind. Fuggit I’ve typed it all out now.
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