Stuart Lancaster excited by England team to start Rugby World Cup
Tuesday 15 September 2015 10:32, UK
England coach Stuart Lancaster was delighted to be able to name an unchanged side for Friday's World Cup opener against Fiji at Twickenham.
Taking no risks and knowing he cannot afford a slip up against an in-form Fiji team that is ranked ninth in the world, Lancaster has picked the same side that started the home victory over Ireland in their final warm-up match.
"It's great to name an unchanged team going into this game on the back of our performance against Ireland, which we were pleased about." Lancaster said.
The only change to the match-day 23 comes on the bench, where powerful hooker Rob Webber is preferred to Jamie George as back-up to Tom Youngs.
That means Brad Barritt and Jonathan Joseph starting at centre, with Sam Burgess continuing his quickfire conversion from rugby league as he is line for his first taste of the World Cup, and his third cap, off the bench.
Geoff Parling again keeps out Joe Launchbury and 26-year-old scrum-half Ben Youngs wins his 50th cap, an achievement Lancaster highlighted.
"I'm really delighted for Ben Youngs in particular and obviously it's his 50th cap, which is a tremendous achievement for someone so young," he said.
Lancaster explained the one changed on the bench and identified the importance of Webber in the scrum against a powerful Fijian pack.
He said: "Jamie George has been excellent but we just felt Rob's international experience at scrum time will be the difference.
"We see Fiji being very good in the scrum and we want Rob's experience in that last 20 minutes or so when I'm sure he'll come on."
