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England and Uruguay will be looking to salvage some positives from their world cup campaigns in their last match of the tournament tonight. Join The Roar for live scores and commentary from 6:00am (AEST).
The spotlight has been on England recently as the team has performed well below expectations and will exit their home world cup in the group stages. It was always going to be a tough ask to make it out of the group of death, but England’s 2015 campaign has not gone to plan at all.
England’s coach Stuart Lancaster has copped some intense criticism during this RWC and is placing a big focus on the fixture against Uruguay.
“This is an opportunity for us to finish the tournament with a strong performance against Uruguay and a chance for the likes of young players such as Jack Nowell and Henry Slade to play in a World Cup,” said Lancaster.
“We owe it to ourselves and the supporters who have been brilliant throughout. This is an important game for rugby in the north of England and we want to give those people who have been looking forward to this game something to cheer about.”
Uruguay as expected has been defeated in all their matches so far. In three games they have managed to score 27 points and two tries.
Regardless of their previous results, Uruguay coach Pablo Lemoine said they are here to entertain.
“We’re still trying to score tries. We’re not coming here to play defensive rugby. We’ll try to score, to have the ball and we’ll try to make a really tough game on Saturday,” Lemoine said.
The two countries have only met once before in the 2003 Rugby World Cup. England were extremely dominant in that fixture and came away with a 111-13 win. The score lines in Uruguay’s games in the 2015 edition suggest they have improved markedly and will not allow England to clock up the century this time around.
In team news, slamming Sam Burgess has been cut from the match-day squad and a total of eight changes have been made to the England side.
The forwards have had a reshuffle with Mako Vunipola starting in place of Joe Marler at loosehead prop. James Haskell and Nick Easter have replaced Tom Wood and Ben Morgan in the back row.
Henry Slade, Jack Nowell, Danny Care and Alex Goode will all start as Stuart Lancaster seeks to test out combinations for the future.
The injured Brad Barritt has been replaced by Owen Farrell at inside-centre and George Ford will return to fly-half.
Look out for Uruguayan scrum-half Agustin Ormaechea who has escaped suspension following a red card in the previous match against Fiji.
Coach Pablo Lemoine was relieved to have Ormaechea at his disposal. He said “this is really good news for him, and really good news for the team”.
Both teams will be desperate to leave a good impression on the tournament. For England, their goal will be nothing less than to come away with a convincing win. Uruguay should be looking to show their South American heart and make the game a contest.
England were thoroughly outplayed by Australia but they should be far too strong for Uruguay. My tip is England by more than four converted tries.
The decision to sack Stuart Lancaster may have already been made but a convincing result in this game could save his job. Can Lancaster’s experimentative side pile on the points against a spirited Uruguay?
Stay awake after the Wallabies match and join The Roar at 6:00am (AEST) for live score updates and debate in our live blog.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.