Reigning champs Wales meet unbeaten England in title decider

Dilanka MANNAKKARA

It’s the battle for glory, A seven-point victory for Wales should be enough to secure successive championship crowns - a feat they last achieved 34 years ago - although a win by any margin or draw would thwart England's Grand Slam bid. The unbeaten English side will have to put their best performance to confront the high riding Welsh team on Super Saturday. This game will ultimately decide the winner of the tournament.

England

England have made four changes to their starting line-up for their Six Nations title showdown with Wales at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday.

A fit-again Owen Farrell reclaims the No.10 shirt with Toby Flood dropping to the bench while Ben Youngs replaces Danny Care at scrum-half. Joe Marler gets the nod ahead of Mako Vunipola at loose-head prop while Tom Croft will make his first Test start in over a year at blindside with James Haskell making way.

In a significant boost to England's title chances, Joe Launchbury has recovered from an elbow injury suffered in last weekend's 18-11 victory over Italy and will partner Geoff Parling in the second row with the latter also having shrugged off injury concerns.

England: Alex Goode; Chris Ashton, Manu Tuilagi, Brad Barritt, Mike Brown; Owen Farrell, Ben Youngs; Joe Marler, Tom Youngs, Dan Cole, Joe Launchbury, Geoff Parling, Tom Croft, Chris Robshaw (capt), Tom Wood

Replacements: Dylan Hartley, David Wilson, Mako Vunipola, Courtney Lawes, James Haskell, Danny Care, Toby Flood, Billy Twelvetrees

Wales

Gethin Jenkins will lead Wales into their Six Nations title decider against Grand Slam-chasing England at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday.

The 32-year-old loose-head prop returns to the starting line-up at the expense of Paul James having recovered from a calf muscle injury and takes the captaincy from flanker Ryan Jones who has been sidelined with a shoulder injury. Justin Tipuric is promoted to openside in Jones' absence with Sam Warburton switching to blindside flanker.

Warburton began the championship as Wales captain but lost his place in the side through injury and despite a return to top form against Scotland last weekend, coach Rob Howley has opted to let him concentrate on his own game. Two changes on the bench see James replacing Ryan Bevington and flanker Aaron Shingler filling the void left by Tipuric.

Howley has named an unchanged backline for the fifth game running, with Mike Phillips set to become Wales' most capped scrum-half with his 77th Test appearance. Jonathan Davies and Jamie Roberts will make their 14th championship appearance together, passing the previous Wales best held by Ray Gravell and Steve Fenwick.

Wales: L Halfpenny (Cardiff Blues); A Cuthbert (Cardiff Blues), J Davies (Scarlets), J Roberts (Cardiff Blues), G North (Scarlets); D Biggar (Ospreys), M Phillips (Bayonne); G Jenkins (Toulon, capt), R Hibbard (Ospreys), A Jones (Ospreys), A-W Jones (Ospreys), I Evans (Ospreys), S Warburton (Cardiff Blues), J Tipuric (Ospreys), T Faletau (Newport Gwent Dragons).

Replacements: K Owens (Scarlets), P James (Bath), S Andrews (Cardiff Blues), A Coombs (Newport Gwent Dragons), A Shingler (Scarlets), L Williams (Cardiff Blues), J Hook (Perpignan), S Williams (Scarlets).

Last Year: England 12 - 19 Wales, March 25, 2012 at Twickenham

Wales won an enthralling contest with England at Twickenham and in the process sealed their 20th Triple Crown victory.

England had gone into half-time 9-6 ahead and it wasn't until the 75th minute that Wales actually went ahead for the first time in the match as Scott Williams produced a brilliant try and appeared to have handed Wales victory.

However, England launched one last gasp attack and David Strettle crossed the try line, believing he had grounded the ball, but television replays proved inconclusive and the tv umpire decided 'no try' to hand Wales an important victory.