England and Wales ready for pre-World Cup battle with ‘an elephant in the room’

The tournament in France is a month away, with the first World Cup squads, including England’s, to be named on Monday

Ellis Genge captains England in Cardiff as they face Wales two days before Steve Borthwick names his final World Cup squad (Getty Images)

They sit in the waiting room with frayed fingernails and butterflied stomachs, lines learnt, prepared for these final auditions. It’s been a long summer for much of the rugby playing world, players toiling away in World Cup summer camps, going over their tournament scripts, ready for these last few chances to stake a claim in a month of warm-ups that kick off in earnest this weekend.

The cast lists will be dripped out over the next few weeks, the last of the tournament squads named on Monday 28 August. Argentina, England, Italy and New Zealand go early, with announcements scheduled for Monday; Fiji and South Africa follow a day later. England assistant coach Richard Wigglesworth described selection as the unavoidable “elephant in the room” this week – the players know that one fluffing of lines could mean curtains for their World Cup hopes.

Everywhere you look, there will be places to be won, learnings to be taken and conclusions to be drawn. How about in Dunedin, where New Zealand can include a handful of squad members unlikely to travel to France in their side for the second Bledisloe Cup clash and still begin as favourites against an Australia side stumbling out of the start of Eddie Jones’s second stint at the helm.

Or what about up at Murrayfield, where France’s experimental side has every shot of giving Scotland a fright even as Gregor Townsend gives many of his likely tournament starters a chance to begin striking the right tune.

The achilles tear suffered by Wallabies tighthead Allan Alaalatoa in Melbourne last weekend was a reminder of how World Cup dreams can be snatched away in a twist of turf – and that the understudies must be ready. The sad reality is that a good number of those initially omitted by their head coaches will be required at some point over the next few months, and the combatants over the next few weekends can afford to step out thinking of self-preservation.

“One thing you can’t do going onto a rugby field is think about staying fit,” England scrum-half Danny Care, who suffered injury heartbreak ahead of the 2011 tournament, explained this week. “No one will be doing that. Everyone will be flying in to win Test matches, that’s what Steve [Borthwick] said.

“Test week is different, it doesn’t matter who we are playing, we are going to try to win games and the best way to be prepared for France is to go and win some Test matches.”

For England, that is certainly true. Borthwick’s side are playing catch-up, psychologically scarred by the mishaps and missteps of the last couple of years and with precious little winning experience, particularly on the road, upon which they can draw.

Borthwick has favoured an early squad announcement, believing clarity will be key to building the cohesion he desires. It affords the England head coach only a single game to assess his options before he informs his players one by one on Sunday whether they have made the cut.

Marcus Smith of Harlequins appears likely to be named in England’s World Cup squad on Monday (PA Wire)

The head coach’s suggestion on Thursday that he feels he needs to take three bodies at each specialist position, including fly-half, makes projecting the composition of his 33 easier. It was thought that Marcus Smith might be squeezed out in favour of an extra back-rower, but assuming the Harlequin does travel, all of Tom Pearson, Tom Willis, Alex Dombrandt, Lewis Ludlam – who feature in Cardiff – and Ben Earl – who does not – could be jostling over only two places. Similarly, starter David Ribbans and replacement Jonny Hill could swap in a second-row shootout, while this might well be a last dance for Guy Porter, Joe Marchant and Joe Cokanasiga, depending on the severity of a potential injury to Henry Arundell.

Warren Gatland has left himself a couple more weeks before he has to turn pencil to pen, with a trip to Twickenham and a visit from South Africa to come before he names his chosen squad. A difficult summer has left the Wales head coach seeking a new spine, with the hope that a younger squad can come together in the way that Gatland’s 2011 crop did on their run to the semi-finals in New Zealand.

“This group is in a good place and I promise you now we will surprise a few people at the World Cup,” said Gatland. “I am excited and I am telling you now that this team will do something special. I love Wales being written off, and people can keep doing that because it just makes us stronger.”

While Gatland has indicated an intention to look at alternative captaincy options after the news of Ken Owens’s injury, that Jac Morgan gets first crack as skipper feels instructive, even if the openside faces tough competition from Tommy Reffell, who could start next weekend at Twickenham. Props Corey Domachowski and Keiron Assiratti were among the Welshmen to emerge from a difficult domestic season with reputations enhanced, and both make debuts.

Jac Morgan will captain Wales for the first time as head coach Warren Gatland hopes a younger squad can come together in the way the 2011 crop did on their run to the semi-finals in New Zealand (Getty Images)

The Six Nations meeting between these two was an ugly thing, and the inherent clunkiness that a first hit-out of the summer will bring means there’s every chance of a repeat. And while it’s impossible not to look to the future given the more important business to come, the selection stakes mean the intensity will be high. Besides, England have already conquered Cardiff once this year – Wales won’t much fancy a repeat.

“I wouldn’t call it a trial game by any means,” said Wigglesworth, England’s attack coach. “If you go into it thinking it’s a trial game, both personally and as a team, we’re going to come unstuck.

“We’ve been very clear that this is England v Wales in Cardiff. It’s a Test match in its own right and we want to find Test match players so we’ve prepared accordingly. We know there are going to be some tight calls, as there will be for every squad. We want as much information as we can to give the guys the best chance.”