The one player who MUST start for England, according to Sir Clive Woodward - Ruck
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The one player who MUST start for England, according to Sir Clive Woodward

12 August 2019
Steven
Sir Clive Woodward has revealed the one play that he thinks ‘must’ start for England at the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

The 25-year-old has had to watch his England team-mates build toward the World Cup, as Eddie Jones tinkered with his line-ups, all the while wrestling with the prospect that once a regular on the team sheet, he may not be going to Japan. 

But as he starred in a 33-19 warm-up win against Warren Gatland’s Wales yesterday, 24 hours before Jones is set to announce his final 31-man squad for the World Cup today, Watson showed that he may have returned to his peak at exactly the right moment.

“For me the two players that came out really well from the victory were Anthony Watson and Joe Launchbury,” wrote Woodward for the Mail Online.

“The England team is really settled now, but I think Watson has just edged ahead of May based on Sunday’s performance — it was that good.

“England have a real chance at the World Cup, as I have always said, and I think that win has cemented that belief especially as that was not close to Eddie’s strongest team.

“Of the new caps — Lewis Ludlam, Jack Singleton, Joe Marchant and Heinz — I don’t see any forcing their way into contention, certainly in the gun match-day 23.”

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