John Mitchell wasn’t likely to send out his No 1 choice side against France, even though this is the final call.
He has made eleven changes to last week’s side. It looks like this:
15 KILDUNNE 14 DOW 13 JONES 12 HEARD 11 BREACH 10 HARRISON 9 HUNT 1 BOTTERMAN 2 COKAYNE 3 MUIR 4 TALLING 5 WARD 6 ALDCROFT (captain) 7 KABEYA 8 MATTHEWS
16 ATKIN-DAVIES 17 CLIFFORD 18 BERN 19 GALLIGAN 20 FEAUNATI 21 L. PACKER 22 ROWLAND 23 SING
The best news is the return of Ellie Kildunne after an injury sustained four months ago, also against France.
In the backs the only doubts revolved around the halves: Mo Hunt replaces Lucy Packer; Zoe Harrison retains her place on merit. But the absence of Holly Aitchison for a second week suggests her ankle trouble hasn’t cleared up.
In the pack the front-row rotates. Mitchell insists on keeping his captain at 6, so it’s Morwenna Talling’s turn to fill in alongside Abbie Ward.
On the bench one interesting detail will be to see where Helena Rowland and especially Emma Sing finish up. Sing could prove all her admirers right by playing a stormer in a less familiar position.
The recurrent concern is the recovery time players like Claudia Moloney-Macdonald need. Time marches on.
Les Bleues
The selectors have not yet revealed their hand.
Their approach has been markedly different from Mitchell’s: all training and no matches.
They have selected a far less experienced 32. Take for example Makarta Baleinadogo, Khoudedia Cissokho, Hina Ikaheheg, Tina Maka and Marie Morland. Between them they possess a minimum of full caps.
We’ll see how this approach works. Even the far more experienced Carla Neisen has been starved of 15’s rugby in recent years.
Match details:
Date: Saturday 9 August
KO: 20.10 BST
Venue: Stade Guy Boniface, Mont-de-Marsan
UK coverage: BBC iPlayer, BBC sport website
