Preview: England v Wales

25 Feb 2022 | 5 min |

Preview, stats and facts ahead of England's clash with Wales on Saturday.

The third round of the Guinness Six Nations and England's first home game.

Eddie Jones' men welcome Wales to Twickenham, with both sides still in the hunt for a championship. One loss a piece in this season's edition adds another element of drama to this already fascinating affair. Whose title hopes will be dashed?

Date	Saturday 26 February
Venue	Twickenham Stadium
Coverage	ITV & BBC Radio 5 Live
Kick off	4:45pm

Having been named in the starting line up Manu Tuilagi is now unavailable to play, after suffering a low grade hamstring injury. His replacement in the starting side will be confirmed on game day.

Youngs on England Rugby Podcast

Courtney Lawes returns to captain England, Kyle Sinckler is in line to earn his 50th cap, and should he come off the bench for his 115th Test, Ben Youngs will become England Men's all-time record cap holder.

"We’ve prepared very well for this game, the squad have really come together on and off the pitch," said Jones. "Wales are a good, tough side and Six Nations champions and it will make for an exciting Test match in front of a full Twickenham crowd.

"We’ve got a talented, young, hungry squad who have trained with real intensity this week. We’re ready to go at them and can’t wait to play in front of our supporters again."

Teams

England

1. Ellis Genge, 2. Luke Cowan-Dickie, 3. Kyle Sinckler, 4. Charlie Ewels, 5. Maro Itoje, 6. Courtney Lawes (c), 7. Tom Curry, 8. Alex Dombrandt, 9. Harry Randall, 10. Marcus Smith, 11. Jack Nowell, 12. (TBC), 13. Henry Slade, 14. Max Malins, 15. Freddie Steward.

Finishers

16. Jamie George, 17. Joe Marler, 18. Will Stuart, 19. Nick Isiekwe, 20. Sam Simmonds, 21. Ben Youngs, 22. George Ford, 23. Elliot Daly.

Wales

1. Wyn Jones, 2. Ryan Elias, 3. Tomas Francis, 4. Will Rowlands, 5. Adam Beard, 6. Ross Moriarty, 7. Taine Basham, 8. Taulupe Faletau, 9. Tomos Williams, 10. Dan Biggar, 11. Josh Adams, 12. Nick Tompkins, 13. Owen Watkin, 14. Alex Cuthbert, 15. Liam Williams.

Replacements

16. Dewi Lake, 17. Gareth Thomas, 18. Leon Brown, 19. Seb Davies, 20. Jac Morgan, 21. Kieran Hardy, 22. Gareth Anscombe, 23. Jonathan Davies.

Stats & Facts

England have won their last four home games against Wales in the Championship, only once before since 1930 have they enjoyed a longer such streak, a nine game run between 1990 and 2006.

Wales have never led at half-time in a Guinness Six Nations match against England at Twickenham (11 matches) - making them the only side never to have held had a half-time lead against England away from home in the Championship.

England have lost just two of their last 24 home games in the Guinness Six Nations (W21, D1), defeats to Ireland in 2018 and Scotland in 2021, Wales’ last win at HQ in the Championship was in 2012 (L4 since).

England full-back Freddie Steward has made more carry metres (249) than any other player in the 2022 Guinness Six Nations.

Kyle Sinckler is set to win his 50th cap for England if he plays in this fixture, he made his debut off the bench in a victory against South Africa in November 2016, since when he has made more appearances than any other prop for England.

If Ben Youngs plays in this match he will win his 115th cap for England, overtaking Jason Leonard (114) as his country’s most capped men’s player, the scrum half has been involved in five tries in his last six starts against Wales (3 tries, 2 assists).

Views from camp

Eddie Jones: "We've got Ben Youngs to finish the game. Imagine having a halfback of 115 caps in the best form of his career coming on to manage that last 20 minutes."

Martin Gleeson:

Courtney Lawes: "We truly have unbelievable talent across the pitch. We want to be controlled in everything we do, we have to adapt to whatever situation we're thrown into, analyse it and deal with it."

Ellis Genge: