Care and Joseph start for England against Wales

BAGSHOT ( United Kingdom): Recordbreaker Danny Care and Jonathan Joseph have both been recalled to England’s back division for their Six Nations clash with Wales at Twickenham tomorrow.

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.

England coach Eddie Jones was forced into making at least one change after first-choice scrum-half Ben Youngs went off after just 10 minutes at the Stadio Olimpico with a knee injury that has ended his involvement in the Six Nations.

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.

Earlier this week, Saracens star Richard Wigglesworth was called into the squad and he filled the vacancy on the bench left by Care’s promotion in the matchday 23 announced by Jones yesterday.

“The team are 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,” said Jones.

“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.”

Jones added: “Danny Care very much deserves the honour of being the most capped England scrum half and I am sure he’ll make the most of his opportunity on Saturday.”

England, who’ve 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 fit-gain wing George North replaced Owen Watkin.

Tomorrow 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.