It's time for England to get the Twickenham crowd on their feet
Steve Borthwick will be hoping for a reaction from England after making 11 changes for their meeting with Wales
©David Howlett
England will be looking for a response and a much-needed boost when Wales visit Twickenham while Scotland will be aiming to build on last weekend's excellent victory against France.
James Orpin previews both World Cup warm-up matches for Talking Rugby Union.
England vs Wales
Following last week’s lacklustre performance by England, where we saw them fail to score a try for the first time since March 2022, I would say that Steve Borthwick's side needs to get the Twickenham crowd on their feet on Saturday, especially after some poor performances at HQ over the past year.
Luckily, Borthwick has picked a team that can hopefully do that, especially with young prospect Henry Arundell starting. His electrifying pace is something that could provide England with a spark at the World Cup next month.
It is a big chance for him to impress to nail down a starting spot on the wing. The positions either side of Freddie Steward in the back three are very much up for grabs going into these last three warm-up games.
Other positions that are still yet to be locked in are in the second row as well as at openside flanker. On Saturday, we will see Ben Earl make his claim for the seven shirt, in a long overdue first start for him, and then George Martin will be looking to secure his spot alongside Maro Itoje in the second-row over his Leicester Tigers teammate Ollie Chessum.
Then at outside centre, if Joe Marchant has a similar performance to last week, he could put himself in pole position for that 13 shirt. With Owen Farrell returning as captain, England will hope to put out a big performance.
For Wales, there is a complete change from Cardiff with Dewi Lake named as captain hoping to emulate Jac Morgan's performance from last week as an inexperienced skipper.
Building on their 20-9 win over England with a very different team will be difficult as Wales will need to adapt to new combinations and generate some team cohesion, but on the flip side, they are giving players such as Scarlets centre Joe Roberts - who will make his debut on Saturday - some valuable experience.
With Lake also being handed the armband on his ninth cap, the occasion will be important for him and the Welsh team who are looking for a new generation of leaders within the squad.
France vs Scotland
Scotland will be looking to gain consecutive wins over the World Cup hosts, after last week fighting back to secure a 25-21 victory despite being a man down.
Jamie Ritchie returns to captain his side out in St Etienne, which includes six changes. Ali Price comes back in at scrum-half and interestingly, there is a 6-2 split on the Scottish bench. This may well be a possible tactic they use in their World Cup opener against the Springboks to match up to South Africa's physicality.
Against a strong French pack this Saturday will be a great test run for it, as the hosts make 13 changes from their side that ran out at Murrayfield.
It is a star-studded line-up that includes captain and former World Player of the Year, Antione Dupont, as well as other star names such as Romain Ntamack and Gregory Alldritt.
It will certainly be a good assignment for the Scots to see where they are in their third of four warm-up games ahead of the tournament in France next month.
A win in France could give them huge confidence and belief that they can make it out of what has been called the ‘Group of Death’ at this World Cup (South Africa, Ireland, Tonga and Romania).
For the French, it is a chance for them to really start to build up some form, as they will want to be firing on all cylinders by the time the opening game of the tournament against the All Blacks comes around.
