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Wales v England - 05/08/23 5:30 KO

I'm hoping a strong side with a mixture of those players that need to fight for a place in the 33. So I'm guessing we may have 5 experimental picks and the rest a full team?
 
England will not use Saturday's World Cup warm-up game with Wales in Cardiff as a "selection shootout", says assistant coach Richard Wigglesworth.

Head coach Steve Borthwick will confirm his 33-man squad for the tournament in France on Monday morning, three weeks before the World Rugby deadline.
Wigglesworth says it is important to give players as much "clarity" as possible over where they stand.

"We definitely don't want to see it as a selection shoot-out," he said.

Speaking to BBC Sport he added: "If we go into a game [with that attitude] then we are not giving the players the best chance of playing well.

"We all know players will be feeling selection is coming up, and that is huge for them, and it should be huge for them because you get to play for England at a World Cup.

"But we want to give them the best chance to play well at the weekend.

"We have a pretty good idea of what we want [as the final squad], and those conversations have been ongoing for a long time."

England play four matches this month, with a return fixture against Wales at Twickenham before a showdown with Ireland in Dublin and finally Fiji back at Twickenham on 26 August.

But Wigglesworth says the focus through August will be on preparation and building cohesion.

"We have carried quite a small squad all the way through because we didn't want everything to be around selection," Wigglesworth explained.

"We want as much cohesion and clarity in what we are doing as possible.

"I think those [final squad] decisions are always going to be hard. But it's best [to name it] now because we give ourselves the best chance to be the best prepared in France.

"We want everything to be around how well we can prepare. It could never come down to just one Test match and that's the only reason why someone would get selected or not selected.

"We are definitely not going 'if this guy plays well he goes'; it is way bigger than that and we want it to be more informed than that."

Wigglesworth went to two World Cups as a player, in 2011 and 2015, and says he has learned lessons from those experiences.

"I have been in camps and some parts of it have always been about: 'where do I sit? Where do I stand?'" he added.

"Those are natural feelings, but they aren't useful feelings for how well you can prepare a squad.

"I think all players have always wanted clarity, I wanted that as a player. Steve has done an incredible job of constantly meeting the players to make sure they feel like they have been treated really fairly."

Wigglesworth has also confirmed Ollie Chessum, Ollie Lawrence and Billy Vunipola are all "back in training" after rehabbing from injury.

For Chessum it completes a quick return after he suffered a serious ankle fracture in training during the Six Nations in March.

Meanwhile, prop Will Stuart says Saturday is a chance to bring together eight weeks of pre-season graft.

"It's the first chance for us to show people what we have been working on, and how hard we have been working," Stuart told BBC Sport.

"It's a chance to put a marker down and that is a big thing for this group, to show people we are at the races."
 
Hmmmmm, hopefully just media talk because it puts some players at a real disadvantage otherwise

Plus would be weird if T.Willis went straight into the RWC uncapped whereas Mercer, who has been playing better/at a higher level, was binned at first opportunity (I get they're different kinda of players but I'm still salty that he wasn't, at the very least, given a few more weeks in camp)
 
TRF_Olyy said:
Hmmmmm, hopefully just media talk because it puts some players at a real disadvantage otherwise

Plus would be weird if T.Willis went straight into the RWC uncapped whereas Mercer, who has been playing better/at a higher level, was binned at first opportunity (I get they're different kinda of players but I'm still salty that he wasn't, at the very least, given a few more weeks in camp)
Click to expand...
Yeah tbh he's just saying it's not an all or nothing game for players. That doesn't mean 0 experimentation necessarily
 
Geordiefalcon said:
England will not use Saturday's World Cup warm-up game with Wales in Cardiff as a "selection shootout", says assistant coach Richard Wigglesworth.

Head coach Steve Borthwick will confirm his 33-man squad for the tournament in France on Monday morning, three weeks before the World Rugby deadline.
Wigglesworth says it is important to give players as much "clarity" as possible over where they stand.

"We definitely don't want to see it as a selection shoot-out," he said.

Speaking to BBC Sport he added: "If we go into a game [with that attitude] then we are not giving the players the best chance of playing well.

"We all know players will be feeling selection is coming up, and that is huge for them, and it should be huge for them because you get to play for England at a World Cup.

"But we want to give them the best chance to play well at the weekend.

"We have a pretty good idea of what we want [as the final squad], and those conversations have been ongoing for a long time."

England play four matches this month, with a return fixture against Wales at Twickenham before a showdown with Ireland in Dublin and finally Fiji back at Twickenham on 26 August.

But Wigglesworth says the focus through August will be on preparation and building cohesion.

"We have carried quite a small squad all the way through because we didn't want everything to be around selection," Wigglesworth explained.

"We want as much cohesion and clarity in what we are doing as possible.

"I think those [final squad] decisions are always going to be hard. But it's best [to name it] now because we give ourselves the best chance to be the best prepared in France.

"We want everything to be around how well we can prepare. It could never come down to just one Test match and that's the only reason why someone would get selected or not selected.

"We are definitely not going 'if this guy plays well he goes'; it is way bigger than that and we want it to be more informed than that."

Wigglesworth went to two World Cups as a player, in 2011 and 2015, and says he has learned lessons from those experiences.

"I have been in camps and some parts of it have always been about: 'where do I sit? Where do I stand?'" he added.

"Those are natural feelings, but they aren't useful feelings for how well you can prepare a squad.

"I think all players have always wanted clarity, I wanted that as a player. Steve has done an incredible job of constantly meeting the players to make sure they feel like they have been treated really fairly."

Wigglesworth has also confirmed Ollie Chessum, Ollie Lawrence and Billy Vunipola are all "back in training" after rehabbing from injury.

For Chessum it completes a quick return after he suffered a serious ankle fracture in training during the Six Nations in March.

Meanwhile, prop Will Stuart says Saturday is a chance to bring together eight weeks of pre-season graft.

"It's the first chance for us to show people what we have been working on, and how hard we have been working," Stuart told BBC Sport.

"It's a chance to put a marker down and that is a big thing for this group, to show people we are at the races."
Click to expand...

I mean, two days before the announcement they really should know what the final squad will be……should be no shoot out element at all.

These warm ups are mainly a chance to stretch the legs and break up the tedium of camp. Chance to try a few combinations / moves etc, but these are a very long way removed from the white heat of real battle and really there's very little to read into them. At least there's very little to read into a good performance - crap ones might be a little more symptomatic. Plus there's always the risk of injuries.
 
We usually announce our team a day or two in advance. It's never earlier than that.
 
Telegraph predicting Marcus Smith to start. Wasn't expecting that but I hope that doesn't mean Farrell at 12.
 
If Marcus can't play a kicking game when needed then surely he needs to learn that?

Maybe I'm wrong in thinking that but it's another string to his bow that's needed at times.

Maybe I'm wrong on this though.
 
Don't Skip Leg Day said:
If Marcus can't play a kicking game when needed then surely he needs to learn that?

Maybe I'm wrong in thinking that but it's another string to his bow that's needed at times.

Maybe I'm wrong on this though.
Click to expand...
I mean, he can do that quite effectively now for quins, that's been the big change in his game since we won the prem imo.

His instinct will always be to not tho
 

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