After a buildup dominated by talk of who is playing and who is not, England and Wales must smell blood in the water for the first too-big-to-miss pool match of the Rugby World Cup.
The teams today butt heads at Twickenham under lights somewhat undermanned, and covered in question marks on two different areas of vulnerability: England’s inside backs and the Wales front row.
England start without their mavericks, flyhalf George Ford and outside center Jonathan Joseph, composers of ambition and the team’s back-line resurgence over the past year. Ford was dropped, while Joseph hurt a pectoral muscle and might not play another Pool A game.
Photo: AFP
In are No. 10 Owen Farrell, reliable and stalwart; No. 12 Sam Burgess, the league convert who has a big-game head, but a small rugby union resume; and No. 13 Brad Barritt, another comfort choice.
In a match in which the tournament hosts have the most to lose, this is to be the trio’s first start together.
The selections appear to have sent England’s backs into a shell, but coach Stuart Lancaster said: “There is no panic.”
He defended Farrell-for-Ford by saying Farrell proved it was his time from performances in training, and in replacement appearances.
So, too, had Burgess, Lancaster added. Burgess, a loose forward at his club, had been pitted against his fellow center rivals in training games for the last three months and fared well, according to Lancaster. Lancaster had been impressed by both of their impacts off the bench, albeit against tiring teams.
Barritt prefers inside center rather than outside, and he is not well-known for sharing the ball, but Lancaster did not want to start less-experienced outside center Henry Slade, even after the latter played with flair in the warm-up games.
Lancaster backed them to be more than a white wall in midfield and show some creativity.
“Just because we have played the back line we have, don’t assume we will just play route one,” Lancaster said. “There has to be some subtlety in that.”
They match up against Dan Biggar, the blunt Jamie Roberts and the silky Scott Williams, who gave England some message board material by claiming it would be easier to defend Burgess than Joseph.
After saying of Williams, “Who’s that?” Burgess shook the Welshman’s comment off.
There is good reason England go into the match with a slight edge. That would be Twickenham, where Wales has won only twice in the last 25 years, in 2008 and 2012. Those were Grand Slam teams. Special.
While England’s inside backs look like they are baiting Wales to crash against them, Wales’ tackling cannot be ignored either. Their siege defense has been extraordinary and makes one wonder how long they can keep holding out.
Taiwan’s men’s table tennis team won bronze on Saturday at this year’s International Table Tennis Federation World Team Table Tennis Championships in London, matching the country’s best-ever finish at the regular tournament. Consisting of Lin Yun-ju, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7, Feng Yi-hsin, Kuo Guan-hong, Hong Jing-kai and Hsu Hsien-chia, the team won bronze after losing 0-3 to Japan in the semifinals. In the opening match, 24-year-old Lin played the first game against world No. 3 Tomokazu Harimoto 11-5, but ultimately lost the next three closely contested games 9-11, 10-12 and 10-12. Feng then faced world No. 8 Sora Matsushima in
Taiwanese fire dancer Yang Li-wei advanced to the final of Britain’s Got Talent this weekend after receiving a Golden Buzzer during her live semi-final performance. Yang, a member of Taiwan’s Coming True Fire Group, awed judges and audiences with a high-intensity fire performance featuring flaming umbrellas, fire swallowing and spinning metal structures balanced with her legs. Judge Simon Cowell praised Yang as a star, while guest judge KSI reacted with amazement before pressing the Golden Buzzer, sending her to the finals. The dance group wrote on social media that the Golden Buzzer was “the highest honor” on the talent show, adding: “Twenty-three years
As Super Rugby fast approaches its playoff season it finds itself racing toward a reckoning with many issues that threaten the southern hemisphere tournament. A group of stakeholders met in the New Zealand city of Christchurch late last month to address problems that are making the future of the 31-year-old competition increasingly tenuous. The discussion was made more urgent by the decision by the owners of Moana Pasifika to fold the Auckland-based club for financial reasons. That followed the closure of the Melbourne Rebels at the end of the 2024 season, likewise because of financial difficulties. Problems addressed included player retention as more
Memphis Grizzlies forward Brandon Clarke, 29, has died, the NBA team said in a statement on Tuesday, while the family of Jason Collins, the first openly gay man to play in a major US pro sports league, announced the former Grizzlies and Brooklyn Nets player had died after a battle with brain cancer. “We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of Brandon Clarke,” the Grizzlies said in a statement posted on social media. “Brandon was an outstanding teammate and an even better person whose impact on the organization and the greater Memphis community will not be forgotten.” The statement did not provide
RSS