England Pick Ten Changes For Japan Test After Win Over Australia
Steve Borthwick has made ten changes and two positional moves for England's Nations Championship match against Japan on Saturday. Analyst Ugo Monye says the side can excite fans if it plays with confidence, and warns against taking support for granted.
England head coach Steve Borthwick has picked a side with the licence to thrill against Japan on Saturday, according to rugby analyst Ugo Monye. It follows a commanding win over Australia at Twickenham a week earlier.
The team contains ten changes and two positional moves. Monye says injuries forced Borthwick's hand in some cases.
A side built to excite
Monye said he could not remember "the last time when I came away from Twickenham so impressed by both the result and the performance". Discipline was strong, the set piece worked and England scored tries in many different ways, he wrote.
Henry Pollock starts. Max Ojomoh and Will Joseph also come in on the back of strong domestic form.
Ojomoh was man of the match in his last England appearance, against Argentina, but has waited the best part of a year for another chance. "Opportunity is never guaranteed," Monye wrote.
Experience anchors the selection. George Ford and Freddie Steward bring it, Henry Slade lines up alongside Ojomoh, and Jack van Poortvliet runs the game at scrum-half. Monye picked van Poortvliet as man of the match against Australia.
Taking Japan on at their own game
Monye expects England to target Japan in the air, the scrum and the maul. He wants more than that.
Japan, he said, will try to play at pace and break the game up. He would like Borthwick to tell his players to move the ball to space, because the team sheet shows they can match that tempo. Mistakes made with a conservative mindset would earn him far less sympathy.
He also pointed to England's 2018 meeting with Japan, which he described as "like a cemetery for some players' international careers". Eddie Jones, Monye wrote, will do everything he can to unsettle England early, and there is "nothing passive" about him.
Monye argued the Wallabies gave England a free ride in the first half last week. He does not expect Japan to repeat that.
A warning from Wembley
Monye also raised the mood at Wembley on Thursday night. Harry Kane became England's most capped player there, having only just won the Ballon d'Or, yet the crowd was so disengaged that the venue felt lifeless.
England had beaten Croatia 7-0 recently, and Monye suggested fans may have been too expectant. He called it a warning for Borthwick's rugby side: "You can never take support for granted."
The message inside the camp should stay simple, he added. Players hoping to force their way into Borthwick's thinking for next year's World Cup will do it by playing well within the team's structures.
