England travel to Cardiff to face Wales on Saturday in what is set to be an enthralling game of rugby.
Eddie Jones’ side will be aiming to maul the Grand Slam dreams of their opponents, after hard-fought victories over Ireland (21-16) and Scotland (24-25).
Despite these impressive wins, Wayne Pivac’s team has had a man advantage over both their previous competitors as both sides went down to 14 men for most of the game.
England will be looking to continue where they left off before the rest weekend after their 41-18 win over Italy. However, their humbling defeat by Scotland in the Calcutta Cup will give Wales a lot of confidence.
Jones has once again called upon an experienced side as he only makes two changes. Hooker Jamie George will return to the starting XV as he replaces Luke Cowan-Dickie. The only other change is at flanker as Mark Wilson comes in for an injured Courtney Lawes.
George Ford, Owen Farrell and Henry Slade will be looking to dominate from the midfield having failed to do so in this year’s Six Nations.
Full-back Elliot Daly will win his 50th international cap on Saturday while George North will earn his 100th cap for Wales.
Pivac’s team will be boosted by the reintroduction of Jonathan Davies who will pair North in centre.
Liam Williams is set to start at full-back with Leigh Halfpenny being absent. Scarlets’ scrum-half Kieran Hardy will replace Tomos Williams and Josh Navidi is fit to start at blindside flanker.
England have lost seven out of their last 10 games at the Principality Stadium but will still be confident that they can dismantle Wales’ tournament and stop them winning the Triple Crown.
Elsewhere, Ireland will be aiming to get their tournament back on track as they face Italy in Rome with both sides losing their first two games.
In fact, Andy Farrell has the unenviable accomplishment of having guided Ireland to two losses out of two for the first time since their opponents joined to form the Six Nations.
Although low on morale, the return of captain Johnny Sexton is sure to fire up the squad against a typically poor Italy.
Farrell has reacted to last week’s defeat by Wales by making seven changes. Dave Kilcoyne, Ronan Kelleher and Tadhg Furlong form a new front row as they replace Cian Healy, Rob Herring and Andrew Porter.
James Ryan and Will Connor will come into the pack and Jordan Larmour will start on the wing ahead of Keith Earls.
Italy remain unchanged despite losing to England and will be hoping to shock Ireland, as they did back in 2013, and avoid a 30th-successive defeat.
Unfortunately, France versus Scotland on Sunday has been postponed following a coronavirus outbreak in the French camp.
The game was set to go ahead despite 10 players testing positive, including captain Charles Ollivon, but an 11th case on Thursday has meant it will not.
Authorities don’t know when the game will be played but it looks likely to be after March 8, either midweek or on March 27.
Although we will be one game short this weekend, the rest weekend has only furthered TIBS News’ desire for international rugby and we still have two tough ties to look forward to.
