Bagshot, England - If England's defence against Wales is as solid as coach Stuart Lancaster's in the face of a Spanish Inquisition of his team selection on Thursday then Twickenham is in line for a thumping home World Cup victory on Saturday.
Lancaster's decision to bring in Owen Farrell for George Ford at flyhalf and to start with Sam Burgess alongside Brad Barritt in a power-packed midfield was described as “astonishing” by former captain Will Carling, but the coach was unfazed amid a barrage of questions from the media.
“Is putting an in-form Owen Farrell into the team a risk? No. We're lucky to have two world class flyhalves,” he said.
“George was fantastic in the Six Nations but since the Premiership final when he was man of the match (playing against Ford), Owen has been pushing very hard.
“There's definitely no panic. It's all about the 23 and it's not as if we're bringing in a player with no experience.
“We've picked a team to give us the best chance of getting a foothold in the game and George will potentially play a different role off the bench.”
Lancaster was similarly unapologetic about throwing Burgess in to such a high-profile match on the back of a handful of games in the 15-man code.
“It is not a gamble. People said it was a gamble to put him in the 31-man squad but day by day, week by week, he is proving people wrong,” he said.
“In full-on games in training he's had to defend against Jonathan Joseph, Henry Slade and Brad and I've watched him day in, day out doing that.
“I'm certain he can deal with the big game experience and I'm certain he can carry the ball over the gain line.
“My confidence in him has grown. We scored two tries at the end of the Fiji game and they were a lot to do with Owen and Sam.”
Lancaster said that his selections were shaped partly by the way Wales play, with marauding centre Jamie Roberts at the heart of much of their attacking threat and with their very wide approach to defence.
“Wales have a very specific defensive system. It's hard to break down and there is very little space on the wings,” he said.
“We've had some success going through them. We were too lateral at times against Fiji and last November it was the same against Australia and South Africa until we went back to what we're good at.
“But don't assume because of the squad we've picked all we're going to do is route one, up our jumpers. There has to be some subtlety in there as Wales are too good to break down that way.” – Reuters