Ashton announces England Squad

Mark Cueto and Matthew Tait come in for Josh Lewsey and Mike Tindall. Fullback Lewsey has won 47 caps and won the Rugby World Cup with England, but he has been dropped after some uninspiring performances. Sale winger Cueto has been given the chance to show his skills in his place and he makes his first start for his country at 15 although he has played at full-back for his club before.

Exciting Newcastle centre Tait also has his chance to show what he can do against Wales as he comes in to replace Tindall, who is in hospital with a suspected knee infection. Toby Flood continues as fly-half as Jonny Wilkinson has been ruled out because he has not recovered from his hamstring injury.

Stephen Jones has been passed fit to lead Wales as they rake on England facing the prospect of collecting the wooden spoon if they lose again at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday. The Welsh skipper was punched in the face during his side’s 23-20 defeat in Italy at the weekend and was forced to leave the field with impaired vision.

Jones is now showing no ill effects and has been cleared to lead the team out as they bid to end a run of four straight defeats. Wales Team Physiotherapist Mark Davies has also cleared prop Chris Horsman (ankle) and hooker Matthew Rees (calf), allowing Jenkins to name an unchanged 22-man squad.

Wales let slip a seven point lead in Rome, but coach Gareth Jenkins has kept faith with his players and is backing them to put in a performance in Cardiff.

“The message is not that we got everything right last week, but that we believe this group of players is capable of getting it right and capable of beating England,” said Jenkins. “They have a second chance as a group to prove what they can do and we are all backing them to do it.

“We haven’t won a game in this Championship and that hurts the whole Squad and Management Team; but we said we had been able to select our strongest side against Italy and we still believe that to be true and have endorsed that selection this weekend.

“There are things we need to change on match day to come away with a win, but the selection process we have gone through tells us that this is the right team to beat England.

“There was a danger of making changes for changes sake and when we took all of the emotion out of the defeat last weekend and looked at the facts it became obvious to us that we have the right players in the right places.

“We have learned a harsh lesson and the same players have the chance to prove they can be better than that. We don’t think we are very far away from putting the kind of performances together that will start winning us matches.”

Wales: K Morgan (Newport Gwent Dragons); M Jones (Llanelli Scarlets), T Shanklin (Cardiff Blues), J Hook (Ospreys), S Williams (Ospreys); S Jones (Llanelli Scarlets, capt), D Peel (Llanelli Scarlets); G Jenkins (Cardiff Blues), M Rees (Llanelli Scarlets), C Horsman (Worcester), I Gough (Newport Gwent Dragons), A-W Jones (Ospreys), A Popham (Llanelli Scarlets), M Williams (Cardiff Blues), R Jones (Ospreys)

Replacements: TR Thomas (Cardiff Blues), D Jones (Ospreys), A Jones (Ospreys), B Cockbain (Ospreys), J Thomas (Ospreys), M Phillips (Cardiff Blues), G Thomas (Toulouse)


England: M Cueto (Sale Sharks); D Strettle (Harlequins), M Tait (Newcastle), M Catt (London Irish, capt), J Robinson (Sale Sharks); T Flood (Newcastle), H Ellis (Leicester); T Payne (Wasps), G Chuter (Leicester), J White (Leicester), M Corry (Leicester), T Palmer (Wasps), J Worsley (Wasps), T Rees (Wasps), N Easter (Harlequins)

Replacements: L Mears (Bath), S Turner (Sale Sharks), L Deacon (Leicester), M Lund (Sale Sharks), S Perry (Bristol), S Geraghty (London Irish), J Noon (Newcastle)