Key events
Teams
Matt Sherratt makes a couple of changes to his starting lineup; Joe Roberts replacing the injured Tom Rogers on the wing, and Aaron Wainwright picked to start on the flank ahead of Tommy Reffell. Nick Tompkins returns to a 5-3 split bench.
England have a number of changes, both personnel and positional as Steve Borthwick shuffles his side due to injury and rotation after the Italy win. Marcus Smith returns to fullback and Tommy Freeman shifts to centre in the absence of Olly Lawrence. Tom Roebuck fills the vacancy left by Freeman on the wing. In the forwards Luke Cowan-Dickie replaces Jamie George at hooker, and Ben Curry joins his twin brother Tom in the back row, with Ben Earl shifting to Number 8. The bench features a return for George Ford to a matchday squad and the inclusion of promising young flanker, Henry Pollock.
Wales:
Blair Murray, Ellis Mee, Max Llewellyn, Ben Thomas, Joe Roberts, Gareth Anscombe, Tomos Williams; Nicky Smith, Elliot Dee, WillGriff John, Will Rowlands, Dafydd Jenkins, Aaron Wainwright, Jac Morgan (captain), Taulupe Faletau.
Replacements: Dewi Lake, Gareth Thomas, Keiron Assiratti, Teddy Williams, Tommy Reffell, Rhodri Williams, Jarrod Evans, Nick Tompkins.
England:
Marcus Smith, Tom Roebuck, Tommy Freeman, Fraser Dingwall, Elliot Daly, Fin Smith, Alex Mitchell; Ellis Genge, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Will Stuart, Maro Itoje, Ollie Chessum, Tom Curry, Ben Curry, Ben Earl.
Replacements: Jamie George, Fin Baxter, Joe Heyes, Chandler Cunningham-South, Henry Pollock, Tom Willis, Jack van Poortvliet, George Ford.
Preamble
The recent passing of Gene Hackman prompted a rewatch of some of his greatest performances; among them his turn as Little Bill, the sheriff in Unforgiven. Facing his own impending death Bill states, “I don’t deserve this … I was building a house”, to which his assassin William Munny replies, “Deserve’s got nothing to do with it”. This is so often the way; in films, in life, especially in sport and both teams start the match today with a chance of a prize neither of them have done an awful lot to earn.
After a spluttering, uninspiring few weeks and months, England could win the whole show via their newly found knack of grinding out tight wins against superior opposition. They will need a try bonus point and an unexpected result in Paris, but even so who saw this coming after the Autumn?
Wales on the other hand have an outside chance of losing this match but still not finishing bottom of the table; an act of grand larceny so heinous you would be forgiven for thinking Matt Sherratt was part of the Hatton Garden gang. Lots of caveat to this; at least one bonus point here, a huge Ireland win in Rome, no Italy bonus points – but it’s certainly not on the outer limits of the plausibility scale. Or they could take the more mundane route of winning today, which opens a whole other rightfulness debate.
There’s much at stake and England and Wales could end up with nothing other than second and a wooden spoon respectively, which could be what they actually deserve. Not that this has much to do with it.