Head coach Eddie Jones has named a 32-man squad for Round 2 at the Principality Stadium when his England side will be chasing a 16th win in a row to try to stay on course for back-to-back Grand Slams.
Second row Kruis is due to undergo surgery this week and will be out of action for up to three months. Loose head prop Vunipola is returning from knee ligament damage.
That return of the player who learned his rugby in Gwent will be a major boost for Jones and his team, but the Aussie coach is hoping to get to the bottom of why England have such a poor record in Cardiff before kick-off this weekend.
“I can’t work out why our record in Wales is so poor. There seems to be some sort of thing there because no-one can tell me why the English are petrified of playing Wales in Wales,” said Jones.
“I will talk to a few blokes who have played there to figure out what the problem is and why the record is so
horrendous – because it is horrendous. Obviously it has been difficult for the English to cope with, so we need to find a way whereby they see it as being delightful.”
WALES v ENGLAND – THE FULL RECORD
| ERA | PL | WAL | ENG | DRAW |
| OVERALL | 129 | 57 | 60 | 12 |
| HN / FIVE / SIX NATIONS | 120 | 54 | 54 | 12 |
| SIX NATIONS | 17 | 6 | 11 | 0 |
| IN CARDIFF | ||||
| CAP 91893-1997) | 35 | 23 | 10 | 2 |
| MS (2000-2015) | 10 | 5 | 5 | 0 |
| OVERALL | 45 | 28 | 15 | 2 |
| IN WALES | ||||
| 1882-2015 | 61 | 36 | 21 | 4 |
ENGLAND SQUAD v WALES
Backs
Mike Brown (Harlequins)
Danny Care (Harlequins)
Elliot Daly (Wasps)
Owen Farrell (Saracens)
George Ford (Bath Rugby)
Jonathan Joseph (Bath Rugby)
Alex Lozowski (Saracens)
Jonny May (Gloucester Rugby)
Jack Nowell (Exeter Chiefs)
Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs)
Ben Te’o (Worcester Warriors)
Anthony Watson (Bath Rugby)
Marland Yarde (Harlequins)
Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers)
Forwards
Jack Clifford (Harlequins)
Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers)
Charlie Ewels (Bath Rugby)
Ellis Genge (Leicester Tigers
Jamie George (Saracens)
Teimana Harrison (Northampton Saints)
Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints)
James Haskell (Wasps)
Nathan Hughes (Wasps)
Maro Itoje (Saracens)
Joe Launchbury (Wasps)
Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints)
Joe Marler (Harlequins)
Matt Mullan (Wasps)
Kyle Sinckler (Harlequins)
Tommy Taylor (Wasps)
Mike Williams (Leicester Tigers)
Tom Wood (Northampton Saints)
