LONDON: Coach Stuart Lancaster has made a nine changes for England's final game of the Rugby World Cup against Uruguay on Saturday, with backs Henry Slade, Jack Nowell, Danny Care and Alex Goode getting their first taste of the tournament.
George Ford returns at flyhalf with Owen Farrell shunting over to inside centre, the positions they filled during the second half of last Saturday's 33-13 defeat by Australia that ended England's chances of making the quarter-finals.
Mako Vunipola, James Haskell and Nick Easter all start in the pack in the game at Manchester City's stadium. "Brad Barritt and Courtney Lawes are not available this weekend and Ben Morgan and Ben Youngs will not be able to train fully until Thursday," Lancaster said after announcing the team on Tuesday.
"This is an opportunity for us to finish the tournament with a strong performance against Uruguay and a chance for young players such as Jack Nowell and Henry Slade to play in a World Cup.
"We owe it to ourselves and the supporters who have been brilliant throughout. This is an important game for rugby in the north of England and we want to give those people who have been looking forward to this game something to cheer about."
"It's very important we put a positive and attacking performance together." England team: 1-Mako Vunipola, 2-Tom Youngs, 3-Dan Cole, 4-Joe Launchbury, 5-Geoff Parling, 6-James Haskell, 7-Chris Robshaw (captain), 8-Nick Easter; 9-Danny Care, 10-George Ford, 11-Jack Nowell, 12-Owen Farrell, 13-Henry Slade, 14-Anthony Watson, 15-Alex Goode. Replacements: 16-Jamie George, 17-Joe Marler, 18-David Wilson, 19-George Kruis, 20-Tom Wood, 21-Richard Wigglesworth, 22-Jonathan Joseph, 23-Mike Brown.
Comments
Comments are closed.