Rugby World Cup 2015: England team to play Australia

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JJ

Stuart Lancaster has named the England team to play Australia this weekend, and has made three changes to the side that lost to Wales in round two.

Jonathan Joseph has been passed fit and returns to the number 13 shirt, with Brad Barritt moving inside one. In the pack, Joe Launchbury and Ben Morgan replace the injured duo of Courtney Lawes and Billy Vunipola.

Ben Youngs has passed a fitness test and starts again in the half-backs with Owen Farrell.

England Head Coach Stuart Lancaster said: “JJ and Ben Youngs are both fit and raring to go, as are the rest of the squad for what will be a huge game against a very good team.

“England-Australia matches at Twickenham are always massive occasions, this one more than ever, and we want everyone behind us so we can get the result we all want.”

ENGLAND TEAM TO PLAY AUSTRALIA

15. Mike Brown (Harlequins, 41 caps)
14. Anthony Watson (Bath Rugby, 13 caps)
13. Jonathan Joseph (Bath Rugby, 14 caps)
12. Brad Barritt (Saracens, 25 caps)
11. Jonny May (Gloucester Rugby, 18 caps)
10. Owen Farrell (Saracens, 33 caps)
9. Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers, 51 caps)

1. Joe Marler (Harlequins, 35 caps)
2. Tom Youngs (Leicester Tigers, 26 caps)
3. Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers, 54 caps)
4. Joe Launchbury (Wasps, 26 caps)
5. Geoff Parling (Exeter Chiefs, 27 caps)
6. Tom Wood (Northampton Saints, 40 caps)
7. Chris Robshaw (captain, Harlequins, 41 caps)
8. Ben Morgan (Gloucester Rugby, 30 caps)

Replacements

16. Rob Webber (Bath Rugby, 15 caps)
17. Mako Vunipola (Saracens, 25 caps)
18. Kieran Brookes (Northampton Saints, 14 caps)
19. George Kruis (Saracens, 8 caps)
20. Nick Easter (Harlequins, 52 caps)
21. Richard Wigglesworth (Saracens, 25 caps)
22. George Ford (Bath Rugby, 15 caps)
23. Sam Burgess (Bath Rugby, 4 caps)

Photo by: Patrick Khachfe / Onside Images

79 thoughts on “Rugby World Cup 2015: England team to play Australia”

  1. My 2yr old has a particular teddy bear.. It goes everywhere with her. It joins us at meal times, days out, is never more than a foot away from her even when playing with other toys and is always ever present at her side when it is time for bed.

    This is exactly how I imagine the Lancaster/Barritt relationship to be.

    2. Very similar to the Gatland Lydiate one I should think, with the poor discarded toy that everyone else wants to play with as Tipuric! To continue your analogy……

  2. Although I can understand why JJ is back in and Barritt is at 12, I can’t help but feel a little disappointed that they didn’t go with Burgess and Slade!

  3. Pretty much the starting 15 that I’d hoped for from the squad available but the bench is a worry, if we pick up an injury to any position other than 12 in the backs we will have a very strange looking back line! Would have been much happier with either Nowell or Slade on the bench.

    How much happier would everyone be if Hartley and Burrell / Eastmond were on that list?

    COME ON ENGLAND!!!!

    1. Spot on JD the bench is like for like in terms replacements and 5 and a 1/2 forwards, 2 and a half backs (the half being Sam Burgess).

      Where is our game changer?

      Nowell and or Slade gives us some cover in a number of positions.

      Just a point on the forwards I’d of liked to have seen Tom Waldrom called up instead of Easter a big hulk of a no. 8 who is hard to bring down and will break tackles, how Lancaster can say he picks on form and leaves out arguably the best No. 8 in England is beyond me.

      1. I think that Waldrom was the top try scorer in the Pr’shp, but he was never considered by Lancaster!? Surely he would have been worth a look?

        1. Totally agree – I think I mentioned this when the first squad lists came out over the summer. Very puzzling. Did Waldrom pick up an injury at the end of the Premiership?? Otherwise there doesn’t seem to be a good explanation for why he has not been in serious contention for a place in the squad. Then again, SL does have a habit of ignoring sound logic and rational judgement – hence Barritt and Goode.

          1. Can’t see the Waldrom thing myself. We’ve been there and done it and he was just too slow for the speed of the international game. Fantastic club player, but not an international. Personally if I was picking an Exeter back row, would have gone Ewers.

  4. A lot of talk is about the breakdown, and how Aus have two fetchers/open sides and thus will dominate the breakdown and England will suffer. But there must be a down side to having two open sides in the back row or everyone would be doing it all the time. Perhaps England’s chance will come through dominating the gain line, with bigger ball carriers, especially now the Skelton is out for the Aussies.

    1. A nice positive thought there, and a good point considering we’ve got Kruis, Easter, Mako, Brookes and Burgess on the bench.

      1. Disagree Neil. We couldn’t play two good opensides but Wales, nz, sa could but don’t.
        It does create an imbalance, especially if you sub out an 8, you lose power in scrum and carrying, in particular off a struggling scrum

    3. If you lose the breakdown you’re unlikely to win the game & having 2 open sides seems to have worked for Oz in the R. Ch’ship.

      Time will tell if it works again on Sat, but England don’t have 1 real open side?!

        1. Will Fraser, Welch at Newcastle, Wallace, Wray? One of the reasons they are not Int’l class yet is that SL won’t give them a chance!

          I think,as has been said, that this is the line up we expected to see once JJ was declared fit.

          The bench though,oh my lord! Plenty of clout but no game changer to shake it up if things go badly. We come back to the Slade question: if not now,when? Lancaster you are a complete arse!

          1. Forgot about Fraser. Clifford has been playing 7 too I believe.
            Think your spot on regarding young players not being given the chance to develop. He seems to be happy with players proven as good but not world class rather than take a risk with players who could be

            1. Somewhat unfair here,

              Fraser has been on and off injured for ages

              Wallace isn’t first choice for his club

              Wray plays at 6 and 8 and isn’t always first choice for Sarries either

              Clifford has only broken into the first team at Quins towards the end of last season (displacing Wallace) – and plays 6 there not 7, which is where Robshaw plays

              Ksevic’s form has not been great

              Fraser, Clifford and Wray are all names for the future, but certainly not now.

              1. Finally some sense from Pablito here. Ridiculous suggestions. Wallace can barely get on the Quins bench. Clifford plays 6. Fraser I’m a huge fan of but he can’t get a run of games. Wray isn’t a 6 either.

                Kvesic is the only viable option but he doesn’t look anywhere near good enough. Robshaw is currently the best England qualified 7 in the Premiership, so to blame SL is madness.

                1. Oi Jacob! I hope you meant ‘finally some sense from Pablito’ in the context of the above comments rather than talking about the rest of my contributions!!!

      2. We don’t at all, even domestically.

        We seem to lack the ability to produce good creative centres, and traditional fetchers. I can’t think of one 12 that I’d want to play for England really.

        Annoyingly Australia produce both of those two things in spades…

        1. Agree regarding fetchers and centres to an extent.
          There are some good prospects coming through. Specifically in the 12 shirt? Ollie devoto, George catchpole and stephenson, given another year will be great options, imo

          2. Definitely agree regarding potentials. But a few years back we said the same about Twelvetrees, Kvesic etc. So let’s wait and see.

            Sam Hill is the one I really like the look of. Not sure Devoto is a 12 but I like him as well.

        2. Slade has played most of his rugby at 10 or 13. Cross the two together and you have a 12. He has all the hallmarks of a classic “second five eighth” and would be a perfect foil for Tuilagi but simply isn’t given a chance.
          He showed enough in one warm up game to make it ahead of Burrell and Twelvetrees yet when Barritt has two absolute stinkers he’s kept on for a must win game. Where is the sense?

      3. We have identikit 6 and 7.Apparently a balanced backrow is not necessary in Lancaster land.Its all about Robshaw keeping his place as per Barritt

    4. It’s down to the way Australia play and the other options available. Pockock is probably the best 6, or 8 in Australia (and possibly a better 7 than Hooper), so this isn’t really tactical – just picking the best players – but happliy for Australia, they’re always going to try to play an open game, so pace and link play are going to be much more of an asset in their back row than power.

      The other sides who realistically have the option of playing two opensides (Wales, New Zealand, Argentina – maybe) like to at least have the option of playing a power game (if that isn’t their only plan).

      South Africa selecting Burger and Lowe is a bit strange, but I think that just comes down to the players available when Vermullen’s injured – it really doesn’t fit their game plan as well as an out and out carrier, but they’re both pretty powerful guys and they have other carriers so they get away with it.

  5. I’ve expended too much energy already on the futility of selecting Barritt, so will go straight to the Bench.

    We have 3 players returning from injury. Morgan, Youngs and Joseph. All three, according to reports were touch and go for this match, and in all honesty would probably not have been risked, if we had beaten Wales.

    Given that it was the forced substitutions that really scuppered England last week (aside from Brad’s defensive brain fart), might it not have been sensible to abandon the “impact” strategy and pick, as far as possible, like for like replacments on the bench, so that we aren’t p*ssing about with tactical changes in a close match we need to win (like last week).

    Easter’s selection chimes with this logic. Wigglesworth’s, Burgess’/ Ford’s selection do not. I would argue there is a higher liklihood of B Youngs and JJ not lasting the match than usual, which surely dicates that Care and Slade should be on the bench. If SL doesn’t trust them, why the hell did he pick them in the first place.

    I didn’t think I could hold a coach in as much contempt as I did Andy Robinson, but well Stu, you’ve succeeeded in something.

    1. What really pisses me off is all the blame for the Welsh result has been placed on the players.I have’nt heard SL accept any personal responsiblity for the outcome in the way the SA coach has twice apologised to the nation.The next game is a matter of the England camp holding up our national honour and laying bodies on the line and vowing to the country there is no way they are going to lose.All we get is Looking forward to the challenge crap.He couldn’t fire up a springer spaniel desparate for a walk

      1. Benjit and Staggy, couldn’t agree with you more if you paid me to. The same applies to Andy “luckiest man in England” Farrell and Teflon Rob. Three careerists masquerading as the Bellweathers of English rugby.

        It is absolutely pathetic that this game is being talked about as our world cup final. The other top tier nations must be pissing them selves. Yes, it was always going to be a tough task to qualify as winners of the group but not impossible by any means.

        Regardless of Saturdays result Lancaster really must go after this shambles. As benjit said ,there is a lot of young talent coming through and the current crop are far better than they are being made to appear. The fault for 90% of the comedy of errors we’ve been forced to endure so far is down to the coaching staff and methods. Farrell can get as defensive and indignant as he wants. He, along with Bomber et al,represents the whole of the England fanbase and nation therefore he Is also answerable to them as well. I can’t imagine there being any mirrors in the Lanacster or Farrell households!

    2. Don’t really see yr logic regds ‘forced substitutions’. Didn’t Wales have the same issue?

      Understand yr frustration in respect of Lancaster though, as his selections, e.g., suddenly replacing Ford, his No.1 pivot, for the ‘biggest game in England’s history’ v Wales seemed irrational, a loss of nerve?

      Also his lack of having an all court game of speed, guile & accuracy within England’s passing game/running lines (fwds as well as midfield) leaves England relying on individual skills (of esp Brown, Watson) out wide, or trying to bash through the middle instead of taking oppo inside shoulders with the intention of offloading to keep play alive & stretching the other side’s ‘D’.

      At least that’s how I see it/him.

      Still a ‘W’ on Sat will could cast him as a ‘Churhillian’ inspirer after all.

      1. Wales didn’t have the same issue.

        England lost or changed the spine of their starting team – 8, 9,10 ,12, 13 – eitherthrough idiotic subs or injuries

        Wales didn’t make the same idiotic, unforced changes and their players that got injured – Williams x 2 and Amos were not as crucial to their side as Youngs and Vunipola in particular had been for England

  6. I remember the last time England played against 2 open sides, Warburton and Tipuric, they didnt fair to well. lost 30 – 3 if I remember rightly. Pocock is a big ball carrier as well as Fardy. Should be an interesting game. Think Giteau may have a bit to much nouse for Barritt and Joseph

  7. Pleased Easter is in over Haskell. That makes sense

    People have been talking about the scrum but the Aussies look much improved in that area. They had real problems at the line-out against fiji though and we should be looking to attack them there

  9. Just put my earlier comments into further context – to those cheering this selection, you do realise that if JJ goes down, we are back to Brad at 13. Against the Aussies. At full strength. Poor JJ has been hung out to dry. The Aussie defence will go at him hard, knowing there is damn all offensive threat inside him.

  10. Does anyone know why the team is always leaked? Is this some sort of tactic or just someone determined to leak it every match?

    Apparently the Welsh management were extremely happy with the extra days practice they had knowing the lineup.

    2. OMG we agree on something. By now being a devious sort the team announced 2 days ago would bear no resemblance to the one picked but be full of our players yet to start, unfortunately that would relax them further when they see the side picked today against what might have been !

    4. I’ve been moaning about this for years. I’m with you and Col on this one. That must be the strangest alliance seen yet on TRB!

  11. So after 60 minutes he will introduce Ford (to 10), Farrell moves to 12, Burgess (to 13), Wrigglesworth, Mako and Brooks, and then with the game in the balance with ten minutes to go possibly Webber, Kruis and Easter

    Sets the pulse racing eh?

  12. It’s pathetic how our endeavour has totally deserted the side. Lancaster got ran close twice, changed the squad, it backfired and he doesn’t accept any responsibility. I always get the feeling he’s itching to have excuses to get Barritt and Farrell into the squad. Saw Farrell come through a string of horrific performances before he gets dropped. Ford can’t win the game for England when the pack has him on the back foot.
    I like Farrell, but all he does is kick goals and make tackles. If the Wales game had gone on longer, I suspect his lovely temperament may have earned him a yellow card as well.
    Are we going to score more tries than the aussies? No. Could we? Of course we could, our back three is in amazing form but they never get the grace of touching the ball.

    1. Finally someone sees Farrell the same as me, wish we had stuck with Ford throughout, Farrell has always done well coming on with 20 to go, not so ford, either pick him or drop him anything else is a waste of his talent. After analysing Farrell against Wales, his kicking game from hand and recklessness in contact were poor and as you say so close to a yellow card. He is our best kicker and best tackling 10 but Ford makes his tackles too, he might get pushed back but holds on & doesn’t rush out like a headless chicken, difficult to see where the victory will come from.

  13. Whilst I hold no regard for the abilities of Barritt, but picking Burgess in the squad SL left himself no option but to play him in this game. Extremely frustrating but unavoidable based on the 31 available.

    Even more than this, the bench is really worrying. I’d have picked Care, Slade and Nowell over the three that are there.

    Wrigglesworth was so poor last week, and with Youngs possibly not funny fit we are likely to see at least 30 mins of Wrigglesworth, which is an absolute disaster.

    Farrell was very good last week, and I would much prefer he stayed on for a full game if possible, mainly because if we have a last minute kick that must be nailed, I don’t back Ford.

    To compound that, the only way he can bring on Ford and Burgess, without removing Farrell, means that Burgess could end up in the 13 channel? If JJ goes down we might well just see the same centre partnership that failed us last week.

    1. The only good thing to say about Wigglesworth is that if we try and play a tight game, kicking and keeping it close to the ruck, then he’s not a disastrous choice.

      I think we should play a tight game – but I’d still rather have seen Care there!

      Sniping scrum halves will help to tie in Hooper and Pocock

  14. Some things worry me the scrum marler is under pressure at scrum & wallabies scrum have improved and might enjoy trying to pen marler. Dan Cole is starting, he’s maybe world class but giving too many penalty no doubt he give away the penalty at breakdown because of pocock and hooper. If we were to go to scrum battle bring back Dave wilson.

    Barritt is another problem Gitaeu will enjoy manipulating him, Joseph most likely will be marked heavy. Wiggleworth on the bench he is not international and slow to ruck hooper & pocock will enjoy counter rucking.

    The wallabies do have a weakness the lineout this is where we need to attack them, the wallabies bringing in pocock at 8 has weaken their lineout option, with parling & lauchberry wallabies lineout will be under pressure with parling able to steal lineout

  15. If we lose I will be supporting Scotland for the rest of the World Cup…….. I’m off to get my kilt out of storage!!

  16. Hi all.
    My first post – and I’m an Aussie, so please be kind. I note there seems a lot of negativity here regarding your chances, and the selections of Lancaster. If it makes you feel better there are lots of nerves this side of the Equator. I am never confident going into a games be England, and this one is no exception.

    I’m interested in the English perception of Marler. There is lots on conjecture from Australia regarding the legality of his scrummaging. How is he perceived in England?

    1. As a good scrummager – possibly very good when on form – who is no more or less legal than any other prop – dodgy bunch that they are

      The general opinion of the conjecture from Australia is that it is the same pre-emptive whining about the scrum that they’ve done for the past decade.

      1. Ha – ouch. Although I am a bit surprised to be honest. If anything I would have thought we (and I particularly mean previous players/coaches) have been guilty of talking up our scrum and our ‘improvement’ year in year out only to be humbled time after time. You certainly find that the likes of Ben Alexander, Al Baxter and Bill Young are often derided by Australian rugby fans. Whining after the game….now that is a different story. Although, to be fair, I don’t think we’re on our Pat Malone there.
        Anyway, thanks for the reply.

        1. I’d have thought the Aussies were a bit more confident about their scrum as well. It’s looked pretty damn good recently.

          But cometh the hour, cometh the Bob Dwyer and lo and behold they’re whinging about illegal English scrums again.

          It must be some kind of inbuilt reaction that has no bearing on the reality (a resurgent Aussie scrum and a variable English one). It could almost be 2003 / 2007 all over again

          1. I do think our current scrum has a genuine chance of doing well – but it is hard to be confident when we have a history of disappointment. I am still haunted by 2007. Not so much 2003 – we were never expected to even make the final then and, at that stage, the refs were letting us get away with murder in the scrums (which unfortunately led us to more than a decade of inadequacy).

            Conversely, the reason I asked the question on Marler is that, for the first time I did actually think that there were legitimate questions around the technique/tactics of one of your props. I was interested to know if that perception was shared by you guys. But hey – in scrummaging all is fair until the ref pulls you up. If our guys are the real deal, they need to deal with it.

            Really looking forward to both the scrum battle and the game – huge importance in the result for both countries (possibly even more so for us as the game is in a precarious position over here).

            Fair points about both Dwyer & Dunning.

            1. TSR, I think the real problem is the fact that most refs don’t know what’s going on in the scrum. Props will use a tactic til it gets pinged and then try another one.

              So here’s a topic for debate – why aren’t there more ex props as referees. I have several comments (most of which will get me in trouble again) do I’ll open it to the forum!

              1. Straggy,
                Well, we are fatter than most for a start, so running around in the sun getting abused is a bit too much like primary school. :)

                Seriously though, I am not sure. But I would make couple of observations –
                – most of the top level referees weren’t, to my knowledge, top level players
                – there are pretty significant differences between top level scrummaging and the weekend grade fixtures
                – I’m not sure therefore, that a low level prop is necessarily going to bring significant insight to test levelling scrummaging

                As an aside, i have been refereed by a number of ex front rowers and, surprisingly I didn’t find it made that much difference. They would often penalise some minor technical detail as a way of emphasising their superior expertise, but would generally still seem oblivious to most of what was going on. That is at a much lower level of rugby though, so I am not sure it really adds much relevance to test refereeing.

                1. I think a lot of the problem with penalties at the scrum is that 9 times out of 10, all four of them are up to something!

                  Taking the Marler example from last Saturday where he looked to be boring in; he’d probably argue was only doing so in response to Francis turning on Youngs. 6 of one and half a dozen of the other.

                  For referees; then what do you do? It is very hard and I don’t think even ex-props at the top level would know every time.

                  In reality what happens is that whichever team gets a shove on tends to be looked at more kindly, as happened with Marler on Saturday.

            2. Are you referring to the G&G article TSR? If so, certainly on one of the scrums they highlight, Marler is illegal but as others point out, just like McCaw at the breakdown, you do what you can get away with! He’s no worse or better than any others

              Look at the Beast Vs Vickery on the Lions tour or Castrogiovanni in quite a lot of his games. Or for that matter, the many years when the Aussies tried every trick in the book to depower the scrum. You do what you need to to gain your team an advantage..

              The important thing is to stop doing it if you get caught!

              1. I think the G&G article showed some examples, yes. I think there have been others too, but I take your points above about transgressions of other players. I was mainly interested in the English perspective of him. Cheers.

  17. I know its not over yet but I can’t help but feel the RFU have cost us a shot at a home World Cup with the appointment of SL. I can’t understand how someone with so little experience can be given such a long contract and be allowed to bring together a coaching team with as little experience as him. SL has consistently failed to deliver and proven with his selections, tactics and substitutions he is not at the same level as other international coaches.

    The fact Aus went out and brought in the players they wanted should have had SL asking the question re Armitage, he has had years to convince him to come back. The squad he has built in 4 years lacks balance, direction and creativity and that can only lie with him and his staff.

    I wish I didn’t think this but am certain we will go out on Sat to a side and coach who knew what he needed and got his RFU to agree it.

    On the bright side a few of the players that could have been useful might get a game against Uruguay when it is too late!

      1. Yeah but that was a loaf of bullsh*t to allow them to pick Mitchell and Giteau and not lose face. I’m sure the RFU could have come up with some equally spurious clause:

        “England players playing overseas will only be considered if they win the ERB player of the year award twice”

        Or how about instead of spending time and resources persuading SB to join Bath, they did likewise for Steffon.

        Probably all irrelevant anyway, he’d have been canned for being too maverick, or not being fit enough or not performing well in training. ..

        1. This is a key one for me. Why haven’t we done much to get Steffon back playing in the Prem?

          Personally, I massively agree with not picking players abroad – I do believe the knock on effects to the long term of English rugby could be damaging.

          The Australian example isn’t comparable. Rugby Union is failing in Aus, there isn’t the support for it and they are losing fans and players to League and Aussie Rules. They are desperate for attention (and cash) so had to pick the big names. The RFU can take a longer view which they rightly have.

          All that being said, they have the cash to bring Steffon to England, and it should have happened a long time ago.

    2. Stu, to be fair SL looked good as a caretaker. And if that’s the case, you have to give them the 4 year cycle to build to the RWC. We weren’t moaning when they beat NZ!

  18. I know it is a different subject but as an England fan I am depressed and dreaming of better days. From what you have seen and bearing in mind players age in 2 years who do you think has shown their head for the lions tour in 2 years. For all you Celts about to shout me down take pity I have nothing else to look forward to

    2. Going on this world cup alone, Only Ben Youngs, Billy Vunipola & Mike Brown have played anywhere near a Lions level. I feel in two years time though; Launchbury, George, May, Watson, Joseph, Burgess (as a forward where he belongs) Ford and Slade may also be in with a shout. That’s picking only players in the world cup squad, there’s a fair few others outside the squad who could be in contention.

    1. Cold comfort Jon,though the sentiment is appreciated. Surely SL won’t be in charge by 2019! (you aren’t really from down under are you?)

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