Rugby World Cup Pool A: England v Wales

Venue: Twickenham Date: Saturday, 26 September Kick-off: 20:00 BST

Coverage: Live on BBC Radio 5 live, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru, plus live text commentary on the BBC Sport website.

England and Wales meet in a potentially crucial World Cup match on Saturday that could have a major bearing on who goes through to the knockout stages.

The sides currently ranked second (Australia), third (England) and fourth (Wales) in the world are fighting for two qualification spots from Pool A.

England have dropped George Ford, with Owen Farrell, Sam Burgess and Brad Barritt forming a new-look midfield.

Scrum-half Gareth Davies will make only his second start for injury-hit Wales.

Wales coach Warren Gatland is without a number of key men for the tournament, with first-choice scrum-half Rhys Webb and British and Irish Lions duo Leigh Halfpenny and Jonathan Davies ruled out because of injury.

The winners of the Group A game will take a massive stride towards qualifying for the quarter-finals, with the losers realistically needing to beat Australia to avoid an early exit.

'No panic' as England drop Ford

England head coach Stuart Lancaster says he has not panicked by replacing fly-half Ford with Farrell - who impressed off the bench in last week's 35-11 victory over Fiji.

"I don't think putting an in-form and confident Owen Farrell into the team is a risk," said Lancaster.

Billy Vunipola comes in at number eight for Ben Morgan, who has a knee injury, while James Haskell and Alex Goode step up to the bench for the first time.

Rugby league convert Burgess, 26, has just three caps for the World Cup hosts, but was chosen to partner Barritt in midfield - a decision described by BBC pundit and former England international Jeremy Guscott as Lancaster deciding to go "route one" - ahead of Henry Slade to take on Jamie Roberts and Scott Williams in the Welsh midfield.

Sam Burgess v Jamie Roberts

Williams fit for Twickenham

There has been good news on the injury front for Wales as full-back Liam Williams has recovered from a thigh problem sustained in the opening win over Uruguay and will start.

Tomas Francis is selected at tight-head prop, Scott Baldwin at hooker with Gethin Jenkins at loose-head, while Samson Lee is named on the bench.

Scarlets tight-head Lee was an injury doubt but is fit enough to be named among the replacements, although there is no Paul James, who is suffering from a calf strain.

Captain Sam Warburton packs down at open-side flanker in a tried-and-tested breakaway trio with Dan Lydiate and Taulupe Faletau, which means the in-form Justin Tipuric provides back-row cover on the bench.

Hastings questions England selection

Former Scotland captain Gavin Hastings has said Gatland will be "laughing all the way to Twickenham" after Ford was dropped for the encounter.

"I think they have panicked with the selection," Hastings told BBC Radio 5 live.

"Instead of potentially bringing on Henry Slade, who would have been the natural player to fill in for Joseph, they have completely changed their backline."

Owen Farrell and George Ford

Ford (right) started all of England's Six Nations matches this year but has given way to Farrell

Former Wales outside-half Jonathan Davies described Gatland's team selection as "interesting". "Big game for Hallam Amos and surprised to see no Tipuric," he tweeted.  

Former Wales captain Colin Charvis wrote in his BBC Sport column: "Wales know what it takes to beat England. They outplayed England for the first 40 minutes in February - now they need to play like that for the whole 80."

Burgess 'not a gamble'

Stuart Lancaster on selecting Burgess: "It's a big game for him. I don't think it's a gamble. Day by day, week by week, he's begun to prove people wrong.

"He has more than proven in the last three months he is capable of playing at this level. He's not got the international rugby union experience, but he's got the big game experience."

Warren Gatland on Burgess: "He's got inexperience at rugby union, but not at big occasions.

"He is a big man at 6ft 5in. You don't single out anyone personally, you just concentrate on yourself. We won't be trying to single out Sam Burgess at all.

"We will be going out there to smash him like everyone else. That's the kind of approach. We're not rubbing our hands together about one player thinking there's a weakness there at all - that is not the way we look at it."

Who does history favour?

England and Wales have met twice at the World Cup, in 1987 and 2003, enjoying one win apiece, while Lancaster's men secured victory over Wales in the most recent encounter between the two nations, coming from 10 points down to win 21-16 in Cardiff at this year's Six Nations.

But Wales have twice beaten England at Twickenham during Gatland's reign - winning 26-19 in 2008 and 19-12 three years ago.

England's Tom Wood has said the 30-3 defeat at the Millennium Stadium two years ago, when victory would have won the Grand Slam for Lancaster's men, still haunts the Red Roses.

"I hope we don't forget that Cardiff defeat," said the 28-year-old. "We have done pretty well home and away against Wales since then and we learned a lot that day, not only about how to play rugby but about using emotion."

England v Wales

Match stats

  • England are aiming for three straight victories over Wales for the first time since 2011.
  • England have lost two of their past five Tests at Twickenham against Wales but prior to that won 10 in a row against Wales there.
  • In their last three defeats against Wales (2011-2013), England failed to score a try. However, England have failed to score a try just once in their past 15 Tests.
  • Wales have scored a try in each of their past 17 World Cup games - only New Zealand (20) have recorded a longer run.
Pool A table

Teams

England: England: Mike Brown; Anthony Watson, Brad Barritt, Sam Burgess, Jonny May, Owen Farrell, Ben Youngs; Joe Marler, Tom Youngs, Dan Cole, Geoff Parling, Courtney Lawes, Tom Wood, Chris Robshaw, Billy Vunipola.

Replacements: Rob Webber, Mako Vunipola, Kieran Brookes, Joe Launchbury, James Haskell, Richard Wigglesworth, George Ford, Alex Goode.

Wales: Liam Williams; George North, Scott Williams, Jamie Roberts, Hallam Amos; Dan Biggar, Gareth Davies; Gethin Jenkins, Scott Baldwin, Tomas Francis, Bradley Davies, Alun Wyn Jones, Dan Lydiate, Sam Warburton (capt), Taulupe Faletau.

Replacements: Ken Owens, Aaron Jarvis, Samson Lee, Luke Charteris, Justin Tipuric, Lloyd Williams, Rhys Priestland, Alex Cuthbert.