Jones urges fans to get in seats early ahead of England v Wales
England head coach Eddie Jones has urged fans to take their seats early at Twickenham for tomorrow’s Six Nations match against Wales as his side, boosted by the return of key players, look to burst out of the blocks.
“The first 20 minutes of a Test match is always the quickest,” said Jones. “I think the stat is that 78 per cent of the teams who score the first try win the Test, so it’s really important for us to have a fast start on Saturday.
“If you can get some good quality ball early, the defences aren’t as quickly set and they haven’t found out how the referee will slow the ball down.
“Obviously Wales will be trying to do the same thing. We’ve got to get out of the blocks pretty quickly. It’s a home game and 82,000 people want to see us get out quickly.”
Ahead of the crucial round three clash with England’s bitter rivals from across the Severn, Jones has welcomed back Courtney Lawes, who starts in the back row as captain, and Jack Nowell, the bulldozing winger who was sent off in week two due to a head injury assessment.
“He [Nowell] has had good training, we picked him because he was in good form,” Jones added. “We want that work rate type winger which is Jack and he started the game well against Italy but unfortunately missed the rest of the game. He will give us something a bit different.”
Manu Tuilagi was named in the initial England squad but withdrew late last night with a hamstring injury. Harlequins centre Joe Marchant has been added to the squad but it is uncertain as to whether he will go straight into the starting XV come tomorrow evening.
Wales will be without injured talisman Alun Wyn Jones and dropped winger Louis Rees-Zammit but will be buoyed by the return of pacy winger Josh Adams and back row powerhouse Taulupe Faletau.
The Welsh No8 comes straight back into the side after just a handful of matches for his club Bath – whom he is leaving come the end of the season.
Previous matches between the two sides have been packed with niggle and dark arts, and Jones is expecting his senior players to be tested.
“I am really happy with the way the leadership group are tending to the team,” Jones said. “We’ve just finished a training session where we presented a number of problems for the players to solve and it was pretty good.
“Under Courtney, [Ellis] Genge is maturing nicely, [Luke] Cowan-Dickie looks in the best condition of his career, Tom Curry did a great job as captain for two games and Henry Slade is growing in stature.
“It will be a big Test on Saturday, Wales always are. They find a way to stay in the game, they have a great tradition in their rugby in Wales in being tough and finding a way to win possession.”
England’s plans have been scuppered even before game day due to the Tuilagi injury and the new leadership team will be tested on their response to such a late wrench.
England have never lost to Wales at Twickenham under the management of Jones, but in a Six Nations Championship as tight as this one, it could be the smallest of margins that decide this clash.