Francis relishing England rematch

By Mark Stevens
15/8/19

Wales prop Tomas Francis is relishing the chance to have another crack at England at Principality Stadium this Saturday.

Warren Gatland’s side slipped to a 33-19 defeat at Twickenham last weekend and will be keen to bounce back with a victory. Francis has been a key player for Wales over the last few years and insists Wales remain on the right track just weeks away from the Rugby World Cup in Japan.

“It’s disappointing to lose – it always is,” said the Exeter Chiefs man. “England played well and we had a lot of unforced errors and mistakes in the first half.

“Luckily it wasn’t the World Cup last weekend. In the past 18 months we’ve made very few unforced errors in this team and stuck to our processes.

“England got the better of us as a pack and if we are going to win the World Cup we are going to have to improve on those areas. We can’t do anything about it now, but now it’s about how we react and move forwards.

“It’s not often in rugby you get a double header in terms of internationals and that’s especially the case with other European teams. It will be nice to get the chance to turn it around this weekend.

“This weekend is a huge opportunity for us as a squad. We’ve got another chance to go back at them and that’s exciting. We’ll go back, get better, and improve. It’s an opportunity gone to assert our dominance but we have a chance to do that on Saturday.”

Wales, meanwhile, have made three changes to their side to face England with Jake Ball, James Davies and Dan Biggar coming into the starting XV.

Ball comes into the second row alongside captain Alun Wyn Jones with Davies coming into the back-row alongside Aaron Wainwright and Ross Moriarty.

James will also line-up alongside elder brother Jonathan Davies for the first time in a Wales jersey.

WALES TEAM TO FACE ENGLAND

15. Liam Williams (Saracens, 56 Caps)
14. George North (Ospreys, 84 Caps)
13. Jonathan Davies (Scarlets, 74 Caps)
12. Hadleigh Parkes (Scarlets, 16 Caps)
11. Josh Adams (Cardiff Blues, 11 Caps)
10. Dan Biggar (Northampton Saints, 71 Caps)
9. Gareth Davies (Scarlets, 42 Caps)
1. Nicky Smith (Ospreys, 29 Caps)
2. Ken Owens (Scarlets, 65 Caps)
3. Tomas Francis (Exeter Chiefs, 41 Caps)
4. Jake Ball (Scarlets, 33 Caps)
5. Alun Wyn Jones (Ospreys, capt, 126 Caps)
6. Aaron Wainwright (Dragons, 9 Caps)
7. James Davies (Scarlets, 3 Caps)
8. Ross Moriarty (Dragons, 32 Caps)

Replacements:

16. Elliot Dee (Dragons, 19 Caps)
17. Wyn Jones (Scarlets, 13 Caps)
18. Dillon Lewis (Cardiff Blues, 13 Caps)
19. Aaron Shingler (Scarlets, 18 Caps)
20. Josh Navidi (Cardiff Blues, 16 Caps)
21. Aled Davies (Ospreys, 17 Caps)
22. Jarrod Evans (Cardiff Blues, 1 Cap)
23. Owen Watkin (Ospreys, 14 Caps)