England coach Eddie Jones has omitted Owen Farrell and Maro Itoje from his squad to face Argentina tomorrow and has handed starts to Henry Slade and Sam Underhill as he manages his resources with a view on the 2019 World Cup.
Farrell and Itoje are both rested as part of Jones’s long-term plan to ease the workload of some of his British and Irish Lions and both are expected to return for next week’s clash against Australia. Slade played at outside centre in both games on England’s summer tour of Argentina but moves to 12 tomorrow, while 21-year-old Underhill gets the chance to stake a claim for the open-side flanker berth having also played against the Pumas in June for his only cap.
Elliot Daly will start on the wing having made a quicker-than-expected recovery from a knee injury, with Jonny May ruled out through a hamstring injury and Semesa Rokoduguni named among the replacements alongside flyhalf Alex Lozowski.
Captain Dylan Hartley retains the hooker berth ahead of Lions first choice Jamie George. England, without a host of players on Lions duty, won both tests in Argentina in June to extend their winning run against them to eight matches. The Pumas have won only one of their nine tests this year, and that was against Georgia and since reaching the 2015 Rugby World Cup semi-finals have lost 18 of their 23 games. “As a squad we have been preparing for this game since our first camp in August and are excited about playing in front of 82,000 fans at Twickenham Stadium on Saturday,” Jones said.
“We know that Argentina are a strong team — Rugby World Cup semi-finalists in 2015 — and we will have to be smart and play well to beat them.” England next play Australia before finishing their series against Samoa.

Prospect Williams gets
centre start for Wales

Future prospect Owen Williams was named at centre as Wales freshened up their team while welcoming back seven Lions tourists to the line-up for tomorrow’s test against Australia in Cardiff. Williams plays in the starting line-up for the first time after just nine minutes of test rugby as blood-bin replacement for Scott Williams against Tonga in June.
The 25-year-old Williams, heralded as a top prospect for Welsh rugby, usually plays at flyhalf for his English club Gloucester but now offers Wales another potential playmaker with Dan Bigger taking the fly half role. “It will be interesting to see how that goes,” said coach Warren Gatland as the team was announced yesterday.
Josh Navidi replaces injured Justin Tipuric at openside flank while Gareth Davies replaces Rhys Webb, who also did not recover in time for selection, at scrum half. Navidi and winger Steff Evans are among choices that indicate Gatland’s intention to shake up the side as Wales look forward to the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
Alun Wyn Jones captains the side and is one of seven players who went on the Lions tour of New Zealand in mid-year that return to the team, along with Dan Biggar, Jonathan Davies, Taulupe Faletau, Leigh Halfpenny, Ken Owens and Liam Williams.
Wales have three uncapped players — Leon Brown, Sam Cross and Owen Watkin —  on the bench for the first of four tests on successive Saturdays at the Principality Stadium with Georgia (Nov. 18), New Zealand (Nov. 25) and South Africa (Dec. 2) to follow. “It’s tough start and we have to make sure we are up and running to take on a very competitive Australian team,” added Gatland.

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