Burgess and Barritt set for the centres

Stuart Lancaster is set to reign in the changes for England’s World Cup showdown with Wales on Saturday with multiple national newspapers reporting late on Tuesday evening that Sam Burgess and Brad Barritt will be named as England's centre combination for the game at Twickenham.

George Ford is also set to be another surprise change from the starting lineup that beat Fiji 35-11 last Friday with the Bath fly-half being dropped in favour of Owen Farrell.

Burgess and Barritt appear to have been earmarked to start after incumbent outside centre Jonathan Joseph became a major doubt for the Twickenham showdown with a chest problem, prompting head coach Stuart Lancaster to take a radical look at his threequarter line.

The Farrell, Burgess, Barritt combination was the midfield trio that ran in training on Monday. Lancaster will formally announce his line-up for Saturday’s clash on Thursday morning.

Burgess' promotion to the starting XV at inside centre (with Barritt moving to 13) is a decision particularly under the microscope given he has played only 112 minutes of international rugby since switching codes in October of last year. If selected, Burgess would also be lining up opposite seasoned British and Irish Lions centre Jamie Roberts.

26-year-old ‘Slammin Sam’ as he is known, impressed in a 20-minute cameo in Friday's tournament opening win over Fiji with his direct running helping to restore momentum and shape to an England backline that had begun to flag.

And whilst Brad Barritt's place in the midfield was set in stone as soon as Joseph was rumored to be unavailable, Farrell's inclusion ahead of Ford would be another huge surprise.

Wales are expected to play their favoured power game at Twickenham and the selection of Farrell, Burgess and Barritt would draw a line in the sand over their intent to meet Warren Gatland's men head-on.

England backs coach Andy Farrell had stated that Joseph would be given Wednesday to prove his fitness, but it appears the Bath centre has already been ruled out. Farrell hinted on Tuesday that Farrell and Burgess were under strong consideration to play.

"Owen features in the centre conversation. He's been training there for 12 weeks," Farrell said.

"Sam is not necessarily next as an impact sub. It depends whether you want to make the impact or you want to go that way from the start and make that impact from the start.

"The start of the game is pretty important as well - how you get off and how you make the other team feel. I wouldn't just pigeon-hole him as an impact players, just like New Zealand wouldn't pigeon-hole Sonny Bill Williams.

"There's all sorts of different permutations. We've got a couple of ideas in the back of our mind but we'll keep that until we need to."

The likely absence of Joseph has also cleared a route for Alex Goode, a standout performer in England’s first warm-up match against France last month, to make an appearance on the bench as full-back and fly-half cover.