Record-breaker Care to start against Wales
RECORD-BREAKER Danny Care and Jonathan Joseph have both been recalled to England’s back division for their Six Nations clash with Wales at Twickenham on Saturday, at 11:45pm Cambodian time.
Care will become England’s most capped scrum-half when he makes his 78th Red Rose appearance to move past 2003 Rugby World Cup winner Matt Dawson.
Meanwhile, Joseph starts at outside centre in the only other change to the starting XV that kicked off England’s Six Nations title defence with a 46-15 win over Italy last weekend after impressing off the bench in Rome.
Care came off the bench to play in the rest of the match.
Meanwhile, Joseph, a classic running centre, has changed places with Ben Te’o after the powerful Worcester midfielder started against Italy.
‘Ferocious defence’
“The team is hugely excited about playing in front of 82,000 fans at Twickenham, and we’ll be well prepared and ready to go out there and beat Wales on Saturday,” Jones said. “We want to make sure our set piece is dominant, our defence is ferocious and that we are at our best against Wales this weekend.”
England, who have now won 23 out of 24 Tests under Australian coach Jones, are bidding to become the first side in the history of the Six Nations in all its guises to win three successive outright Championship titles.
But they will be up against a Wales team buoyed by an opening 34-7 thrashing of Scotland in Cardiff.
Unsurprisingly, Wales coach Warren Gatland named an unchanged starting XV on Tuesday, with the sole alteration on the bench where fitgain wing George North replaced Owen Watkin.
Saturday will see the New Zealander coaching his 99th Test in charge of Wales, surpassing Frenchman Bernard Laporte’s mark of games for one Six Nations country.
Only former All Blacks coach Graham Henry, with a world record 103 Tests in charge of New Zealand, is ahead of Gatland but the Wales boss should move past that figure later this year in Argentina.