England have named three uncapped players in their 23-man matchday squad to face the All Blacks, with Bath’s Semesa Rokoduguni poised to start on the right wing. His club-mate Anthony Watson is also likely to make his debut off the replacements’ bench, along with the Saracens’ lock George Kruis.
The Fiji-born Rokoduguni, a lance-corporal in the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, is qualified for England as a serving member of the British army. The 27-year-old has been at Bath for only two years but has been consistently impressive this season and will line up against the All Blacks at Twickenham, where he once scored a hat-trick of tries for the army against the navy.
There is no shortage of pace elsewhere in the back-line, with Gloucester’s Jonny May expected to start on the left wing and the distinctly rapid Watson edging out the Saracens full-back Alex Goode as back-three cover. Watson is one of four Bath backs in the squad, with Kyle Eastmond and George Ford the other two members of the quartet.
Kruis will fill the vacancy left by the injured Joe Launchbury but Dave Attwood is expected to start in the second row after his fiancée gave birth on Tuesday. Assuming there are no complications, the Bath second-row forward is expected to rejoin the squad on Thursday.
“They’ve both promised me their baby will be delivered in the next couple of days,” said the forwards coach, Graham Rowntree. “Hopefully that will be sorted for the weekend. We’ll assess it on Thursday morning.”
He said the All Blacks are “not invincible” despite England’s 3-0 series defeat in New Zealand in June. “They are not invincible. There is no team that is invincible. They have got a hell of a record that we have to respect but we have to go on that field believing in ourselves. It is about us and what we can bring at home.
“We want to win all the [autumn] games at Twickenham and make that a fortress. They are world-class players and we have to respect what the All Blacks can bring in general. But we won’t be fearing them.”
The props, Joe Marler and David Wilson, who were suffering from minor injuries last week, have trained fully this week and will be available.
England squad M Brown (Harlequins), A Watson (Bath), S Rokoduguni (Bath), J May (Gloucester), B Barritt (Saracens), K Eastmond (Bath), O Farrell (Saracens), G Ford (Bath), D Care (Harlequins), B Youngs (Leicester), J Marler (Harlequins), M Mullan (Wasps), D Hartley (Northampton), R Webber (Bath), D Wilson (Bath), K Brookes (Newcastle), D Attwood (Bath), G Kruis (Saracens), C Lawes (Northampton), T Wood (Northampton), C Robshaw (Harlequins), B Vunipola (Saracens), B Morgan (Gloucester).
