Hier auch schon mal ein kleiner Vorbericht auf das England-Spiel:
10:00 31Jan08 RTRS-PREVIEW-Rugby-England ready to make Six Nations impact again
By Mitch Phillips
LONDON, Jan 31 (Reuters) - England owe their fans a decent Six Nations and, buoyed by their World Cup heroics, they should begin to deliver when they open their campaign in front of 82,000 fans at Twickenham on Saturday (1630GMT).
When they swept to a grand slam in 2003 and followed up by winning the World Cup eight months later, few would have imagined that England would twice finish fourth and twice third in the next four tournaments.
Amid the failings, the concept of Fortress Twickenham was blown away but one thing remained constant -- Wales still did not win there.
The last time the red shirts triumphed in south west London was in 1988 and they have taken some fearful hammerings since.
They arrive on Saturday with a new coach, a new captain, major positional changes and with their confidence fragile at best after their early World Cup exit at the hands of Fiji.
England, conversely, will stroll out at the fully redeveloped ground with a proven front five that did sterling duty in the run to last year's World Cup final, reliable old names back from injury and dangerous runners out wide and on the bench.
"I honestly think this is a group of players who can start to do what we need to do," England coach Brian Ashton said.
"We need the continuity and platform of stability and control we had in the knockout stages of the World Cup but I think if you look at the balance of the side now we can start adding bits and pieces of creativity to the game.
"It might not all come together on Saturday but hopefully sooner rather than later it will do."
Ashton has acted to strengthen his lineout by recalling Steve Borthwick and including athletic number eight Luke Narraway for his first cap, but most of the experiments will come from the bench in the form of winger Lesley Vainikolo, flyhalf Danny Cipriani and scrumhalf Richard Wigglesworth.
WOODEN SPOON
Wales will no doubt look for inspiration to their 27-18 Millennium Stadium victory in the final game of last season's Six Nations, a win that avoided a wooden spoon, while new coach Warren Gatland and his English assistant Shaun Edwards are certainly not short on confidence.
"You have to go out there with some self-belief, you have to go out there and compete," Gatland said of his first game. "If there is any doubt then Twickenham can be a really long day at the office. But there is nothing to fear in that England squad."
It did not look that way when an experimental Welsh side was thumped 62-5 there in August when their pack was humiliated.
Gatland, the fifth Welsh coach to start a tournament in the last seven years, has immediately made his mark by naming a remarkable 13 Ospreys players in his starting team.
Among them are some dangerous backs, not least flyhalf James Hook, back-in-favour centre Gavin Henson and winger Shane Williams. The problem, however, may be that they do not see much of the ball.
Teams:
England - 15-Iain Balshaw, 14-Paul Sackey, 13-Mike Tindall, 12-Toby Flood, 11-David Strettle, 10-Jonny Wilkinson, 9-Andy Gomarsall, 8-Luke Narraway, 7-Lewis Moody, 6-James Haskell, 5-Steve Borthwick, 4-Simon Shaw, 3-Phil Vickery (captain), 2-Mark Regan, 1-Andrew Sheridan.
Replacements: 16-Lee Mears, 17-Matt Stevens, 18-Ben Kay, 19-Tom Rees, 20-Richard Wigglesworth, 21-Daniel Cipriani, 22-Lesley Vainikolo.
Wales - 15-Lee Byrne, 14-Shane Williams 13-Sonny Parker, 12-Gavin Henson, 11-Mark Jones, 10-James Hook, 9-Mike Phillips, 8-Ryan Jones (captain), 7-Martyn Williams, 6-Jonathan Thomas, 5-Ian Gough, 4-Alun Wyn Jones, 3-Adam Jones, 2-Huw Bennett, 1-Duncan Jones.
Replacements: 16-Matthew Rees, 17-Gethin Jenkins, 18-Ian Evans, 19-Alix Popham, 20-Gareth Cooper, 21-Stephen Jones, 22-Tom Shanklin.
Referee: Craig Joubert (South Africa)
Also genau was für Dich 
