Jones names Final team
WORLD CUP TEAM ANNOUNCEMENT: England coach Eddie Jones has named his team to play South Africa in the Final on Saturday.
Captain Owen Farrell will lead an unchanged starting XV – the same combination that beat New Zealand in the semifinal last weekend.
The starters have a total of 731 caps between them.
Ben Spencer has been named on the replacement bench and is in line to play his first game in the World Cup, having replaced injured Willi Heinz earlier this week.
“It has been a good week,” Jones said.
“The players have been together a while now so it’s less about the volume of training this week, it’s more about sharpening the sword.
“South Africa is a difficult opponent and we are going to have to fight hard to win.
“We know the physical part of the game is going to be important and the players will go into this game well prepared knowing how we want to play.
“We will go and play with no fear.
“South Africa will probably play a similar type of game they have played all tournament so we need be good in the arm wrestle and when we have the opportunities to break the game up, we are then confident and composed enough to take them.”
England have remained unbeaten during the tournament – having won their pool matches against Tonga (35-3), United States (45-7) and Argentina (39-10), before the France game was cancelled due to typhoon Hagibis.
England beat Australia 44-16 in the quarterfinal in Oita, before defeating New Zealand 19-7 in Yokohama last weekend to progress to the Final.
This is the fourth time England have reached the World Cup Final.
They have beaten South Africa in their last two Test matches.
Jones will be in charge of England for the 50th time this weekend and is only the third England coach to reach this milestone.
He has the best win rate (80 percent) of any head coach of England.
England: 15 Elliot Daly, 14 Anthony Watson, 13 Manu Tuilagi, 12 Owen Farrell, 11 Jonny May, 10 George Ford, 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Billy Vunipola, 7 Sam Underhill, 6 Tom Curry, 5 Courtney Lawes, 4 Maro Itoje, 3 Kyle Sinckler, 2 Jamie George, 1 Mako Vunipola.
Replacements: 16 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17 Joe Marler, 18 Dan Cole, 19 George Kruis, 20 Mark Wilson, 21 Ben Spencer, 22 Henry Slade, 23 Jonathan Joseph.
Date: Saturday, November 2
Venue: International Stadium, Kanagawa Prefecture, Yokohama City
Kick-off: 18.00 (11.00 SA time; 09.00 UK time; 09.00 GMT)
Referee: Jérôme Garcès (France)
Assistant referees: Romain Poite (France), Ben O’Keeffe (New Zealand)
TMO: Ben Skeen (New Zealand)
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