Key events
An electrifying Nations Championship game is taking place in Cardiff right now: Wales are winning 35-28 against the All Blacks with about 15 minutes left!
The hosts started like a train, scoring two tries in the first five minutes. New Zealand have kept reeling them in – but Wales keep on slugging back.
A reminder: Wales haven’t beaten the All Blacks since 1953.
Teams
England
Freddie Steward, Will Joseph, Henry Slade, Max Ojomoh, Cadan Murley, George Ford, Jack van Poortvliet; Ellis Genge, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Asher Opoku-Fordjour, Maro Itoje (capt), George Martin, Alex Coles, Ben Earl, Henry Pollock.
Replacements: Theo Dan, Emmanuel Iyogun, Joe Heyes, Arthur Clark, Ben Curry, Greg Fisilau, Archie McParland, Marcus Smith.
Japan
Kazuma Ueda, Kippei Ishida, Dylan Riley, Samisoni Tua, Riku Tokito, Riku Kitahara, Naoto Saito (co-capt); Yota Kamimori, Mamoru Harada, Shuhei Takeuchi, Harry Hockings, Warner Dearns (co-capt), Ben Gunter, Kanji Shimokawa, Jack Cornelsen.
Replacements: Kenji Sato, Sojiro Otsuka, Opeti Helu, Michael Stolberg, Tiennan Costley, Shinobu Fujiwara, Shinya Komura, Jisu Lee.
Referee: Damián Schneider
Preamble
Screen tests for the new James Bond aren’t the only major auditions taking place in England this autumn. With Steve Borthwick’s claiming that “probably 26 to 28” places in his 33-man World Cup squad are decided, any players on the fringes will be highly motivated to impress. Which adds to the intrigue around this Nations Championship clash with Japan, for which Borthwick has made 10 changes from the XV that stuck 45 points on Australia last weekend.
Admittedly, some of those switches are down to injury woes – alas, Manny Feyi-Waboso! – but mainly it’s England’s head coach testing his depth/resting first-choice options for the All Blacks next weekend. That means a second England start for Henry Pollock (at No 8) while the exciting Max Ojomoh is at inside centre. Reliable George Ford gets the nod at fly-half.
As for Eddie Jones’s Brave Blossoms: he’ll be telling his charges that all these changes smack of England taking Japan lightly. (That’s when Jones isn’t telling England they struggle against “unorthodox” rugby.) Japan are coming off a respectable 28-21 defeat in Wales and Jones has said he is “looking forward to going to Twickenham with this young Japanese team that’s going to play the house down”.
Bold talk, even if the odds are firmly against Japan scoring a first ever win over England. Indeed, Borthwick’s much-changed XV – full of players champing at the bit to prove their worth – may be an even tougher challenge for Japan than a first-choice lineup with half an eye on New Zealand.
The Allianz Stadium is sold out. Kick-off is at 4.40pm (GMT). Please email with your thoughts and stay with us for more Nations Championship news in the buildup!
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