No fear on injuries for Watson

Anthony Watson insists England will throw themselves into their final World Cup warm-up Test without fear of injury.

The clash with Italy at a nearly sold-out St James’ Park is the last of the summer’s four fixtures before Eddie Jones’ men depart for Japan 48 hours later.

For any of the 20 involved in the Newcastle showdown who also are destined for the Far East – centre Joe Marchant and the benched Charlie Ewels and Matt Kvesic are not in the World Cup squad – to suffer a significant injury at this stage of preparations would be a bitter blow.

Watson, however, insists players can not afford to adopt an attitude of selfpreservation.

“You can’t worry about it and I’m not worried about it,” said Watson, who has been in fine form since recovering from a serious Achilles injury.

“As soon as you start going into contact at 85% and start worrying about making sure you get on the plane on Sunday, you won’t play as well as you can and you’d probably get injured anyway.”

Watson’s third start of the summer will also be his fourth appearance at full-back for England after Elliot Daly was rested for the visit of Italy.

● Scarlets fly-half Rhys Patchell will feature in a Wales team showing 15 changes for the final World Cup preparation game against Ireland.

Patchell endured an injury-hit campaign last season and has not made a Test start since June last year.

Wales head coach Warren Gatland has named a powerful team for Dublin, changing it entirely from the side beaten 22-17 by Ireland last weekend.

Patchell apart, it also includes the likes of captain Alun Wyn Jones, wing George North, centre Jonathan Davies and openside flanker Justin Tipuric.