Rugby World Cup 2023 – Day 18 highlights
The Rugby World Cup has entered the final part of the Pool Phase with many teams already knowing their fates in France. Steve Borthwick’s England face Samoa on Saturday having already qualified for the quarter-final.
England will want to beat Samoa to build momentum ahead of the last-eight. Bortwick’s side have endured plenty of setbacks already this tournament and will be pleased to enter the knockouts with relative ease.
Meanwhile, Scotland face Ireland in a mammoth clash that could decide who goes through to the next round. You can follow all the updates with Express Sport’s LIVE blog, below.
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Borthwick selection a ‘backward step’
Andy Goode believes Owen Farrell’s inclusion at centre for England’s clash with Samoa is a ‘backward step’.
Steve Borthwick will start with a double centre pivot of Farrell and George Ford.
Goode wrote for Rugby Pass: “Steve Borthwick has reverted to type after his attacking team selection against Chile and we knew it was coming but Owen Farrell’s inclusion at centre feels like a backward step.
“It would have been a massive call to leave his captain out of the starting XV and it would have been a huge decision to drop George Ford, who has been named player of the match in both his starts at this tournament, but I think he should have done one or the other.”
When do England play?
England are already through to the quarter-final after a tremendous Pool Phase.
However, Borthwick’s side face Samoa on Saturday with their place in the knockout round already secured.
England begin their match against Samoa at 4:45pm.
England star leaves squad
England star Jack Willis has left the World Cup squad after suffering his tournament-ending injury, Steve Borthwick revealed.
Willis injured his neck in the thrashing of Chile.
And Borthwick said Willis has left the squad, with a replacement lined up.
The head coach said: “Jack unfortunately suffered an injury in the Test match against Chile. He recovered and rehabbed but unfortunately at this stage he’s unable to be fit. What this means is that Jack has left the squad.
“Jack has been an important member of this team. We’re really disappointed for him and disappointed that he won’t feature in the rest of this World Cup, but we anticipate he will be back in the field very soon.”
Eddie Jones corrected by Will Skelton
Will Skelton interrupted Eddie Jones to insist that his injury may have been his own fault.
Australia boss Jones attempted to take the blame for injuries suffered by Skelton and Taniela Tupou.
“The biggest loss we had in this tournament was losing Taniela and Will in one session and I blame myself for that,” Jones said.
“Just didn’t get it right, the session. You never know with injuries, you never really know. But could we have done that a little bit differently? I keep thinking about that.
“To minimise the risk of damage, there’s just an order of training, and the way you train. I hold my hands up.”
However, Skelton disagreed, insisting: “You can look at anything, if I had a half an hour more sleep, if I had drunk a litre more water. I think for those things, I’m in control,” he said.
“Things happen and that’s rugby, injuries happen during the week and in games. I (might) have got injured on the weekend against Fiji. It’s unfortunate and I guess we’ve got to move on.”
Welcome
Hello and welcome to Express Sport’s live coverage of Saturday’s Rugby World Cup news.
We’ve have all the latest from France in this blog.
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