Wales have announced their team to take on England, and to potentially win the 2012 Triple Crown at Twickenham. Only one real surprise in the starting line up, with Alun Wyn Jones coming in to replace Ryan Jones at 2nd row, who for me has had 2 superb games and will rightly feel hard done by.
Wales vs England
Ken Owens starts at Hooker, as Huw Bennett and Matthew Rees have failed fitness tests. Richard Hibbard joins the squad on the bench, having not been with them at any point until now.
Other than that it’s pretty much ‘as you were’, with Halfpenny retaining his full back role, and North and Warburton being passed fit after injury concerns. We’ll take a deeper look at the team tomorrow, but for now join in the debate on our Forum, and get your own say across.
Welsh Team vs England. 2012 6 Nations
Leigh Halfpenny, Alex Cuthbert, Jonathan Davies, Jamie Roberts, George North; Rhys Priestland, Michael Phillips; Gethin Jenkins, Ken Owens, Adam Jones, Alun Wyn Jones, Ian Evans, Danny Lydiate, Sam Warburton (C), Toby Faletau
REPLACEMENTS: Richard Hibbard, Paul James, Ryan Jones, Justin Tipuric, Lloyd Williams, James Hook, Scott Williams
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Disgusting treatment of Ryan Jones imo! He’s been amazing for us the last 2 matches and it should be AW Jones on the bench!
Agree Dyl. Presumably the coaches think that AWJ will be a big help at the lineout. AWJ front, Evans middle, Warburton back. It really needs Owens to hit his darts, something our hookers havent been doing so hard to blame ryan.
Around the pitch Ryan has been top draw twice now, probably the 2nd or 3rd best player on the park in both games, despite being in different positions. Odd to drop a player playing like that for someone who has done 1.5 games in a few months
He provides more versatility – As in he covers more positions from the bench maybe AWJ Needs a run out as we will be needing him come the France game… Perhaps Gatland is being very tactical… Need to look at the plus side… No Andy Powell… Ryan provides cover of 2nd Row 8 and 6 – No other player offers that versatility from the bench for now!
Also – I would hardly call it it disgusting treatment – I am sure Gatland has spoken with Ryan at length about it – AWJ at the end of the day is a second row specialist and a better lineout technician than Ryan… I am sure Ryan has an important role to play in this match… I think the bigger question is why Lydiate not Ryan – Lydiate is awesome but Ryan is playing better at the moment!
Disgusting leaving Ryan out – there is no excuse – he has been in the form of his life despite being shifted about position and I watched AWJ at the Liberty Friday night and he is not International match fit! Ryan should feel very pissed off with Gatland for this the guy has stood out for me in both games and I would play him at hooker ahead of Owens because Ryan could probably do a better job. That is all!
Well that was constructive – We all know Ryan is playing weklll so the question is why is it not Lydiate making way for him… AWJ Is much better in the lineouts and lets be honest we need him back despite Ryan’s brilliance… And maybe we should have more faith in Mr Gatland as he has consistently proven us wrong – Ryan is on the bench so I think Gatland has a plan lest we forget that I would prefer for AWJ to start and have to come off than come on and have to go off – I think we need to see it as a very astute tactical manoeuvre by the Welsh management!