International rugby preview: England expect to overcome Samoa challenge
England coach Martin Johnson will expect his team to comfortably beat Samoa, as they prepare for their Test at Twickenham on Saturday 20 November.
England will be in confident mood ahead of the Test, having beaten Australia 35-18 in their last match on 13 November.
Johnson has made four changes to the team that beat Australia and the coach was keen not to make mass changes in the hope that England can maintain their continuity and reproduce a consistent level of
performance for the remaining Test matches. Speaking at a press conference, Johnson said, "We have had the same team for the last four or five games and we have seen the rewards of that.”
Hendre Fourie makes his first start for England after impressing as a substitute in the Autumn Internationals. The player comes in for England captain Lewis Moody, who is rested for the match with South
Africa on Saturday 27 November.
Experienced flanker James Haskell replaces the British and Irish Lion Tom Croft, while tight-head prop David Wilson is the final change in the forward pack. Dan Cole drops to the bench as a result of Wilson’s
inclusion.
Johnson has only made one change to his back-line. Matt Banaher comes into the team at centre and he will form a hugely physical midfield pairing with Shontayne Hape.
The England coach has named a number of physical big players in the team to match Samoa’s physical side.
Samoa will be happy with their start to the Autumn Internationals. They were unlucky to lose to Ireland 20-10 in their first Test on Saturday 13 November.
After their impressive performance, the Samoans have decided to stick with the same 15 players that went close to causing an upset in Ireland.
The team contains seven players that play in the Aviva Premiership and England will be wary of player’s like Leicester’s Alesana Tuilagi.
Samoa have a number of French and New Zealand based players in the squad and they will travel to Twickenham with confidence.
England will expect to dominate the scrum and line-out and should win most of the possession.
The English forwards dominance should mean that there will be a lot of space for players like winger Chris Ashton and full-back Ben Foden to exploit out wide.
Out-half Toby Flood will be expected to kick for territory and exploit Samoa’s weak line-out, before they adopt a more expansive game and use their back-line.
Samoa will try to put in a number of big hits on the English players in the early stages of the match.
They will hope that their forwards can put in a similar display as they did against Ireland and will look to some of their flair players in the back-line to target the new central partnership of Hape and
Banahan in the English midfield.
England will go into the Test as massive favourites (1/33) after their performance against the Wallabies. They should have the power and strength up front to dominate the match and come away with their
second win of the Autumn Internationals.
Prediction: England 30 Samoa 13
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