The Rugby World Cup gets real this weekend.

It doesn’t start for a further five weeks, but the warm-up matches begin on Saturday and for any player who picks up a significant injury, the warm-ups will leave them with a cold fear.

Not that anyone on the field at the Principality Stadium on Saturday can hold back when Wales take on England.

They must go full throttle to earn selection and hope they are not bumped off course.

There is much that will seem unfamiliar about Wales, including a new captain.

Jac Morgan has the job, with the 23-yearold already being compared by head coach Warren Gatland to former skipper Sam Warburton.

“He’s humble,” Gatland said of Morgan.

“He’s a good man. He’s really well respected in the squad. He doesn’t say a lot, a bit like Sam. He does his talking out there and leads by example.

“That’s a huge positive about him. We went to Turkey last week and took a referee out there with us to do some live stuff.

“One of the comments from him was that some of the interaction from Jac was really impressive. He was asking good, positive questions without being aggressive.

“That was probably an indication we’d made the right call.”

Wales’ training squad experienced punishing training camps in Switzerland and Turkey during the past month and Gatland will parade three news caps – Max Llewellyn, Corey Domachowski and Keiron Assiratti – among the starting line-up.

“I have got to say that I am incredibly impressed with this group of players in the last eight weeks,” Gatland added.

“They are in great shape physically. I couldn’t have asked for any more.

“They have been to the well and had to dig deep with everything we’ve put them through. They have been absolutely brilliant.

“We’ve had tough sessions, but come out the other side. The hardest thing is naming the 33 (final World Cup squad). There will be some real tough calls.”

It’s not just the Welsh players who will be slightly edgy about picking up injuries.

England scrum-half Danny Care is now 36, but injuries and selection snubs mean he has played just one World Cup match – against Uruguay in 2015 – among his 84 Test appearances for England.

But Care says: “One thing you can’t do going onto a rugby field is think about staying fit and no one will be doing that.

“It is the nature of the beast – you’re not playing tiddlywinks. It’s a tough old sport and you can get injured at any point, in any training session.

“It’s the way it is, there is a bit of luck involved sometimes. You try and not think about it, just crack on and put your head 100 per cent into everything and then hope for the best.

This is how the teams line-up:

Wales: 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Louis Rees-Zammit, 13 George North, 12 Max Llewellyn, 11 Rio Dyer, 10 Sam Costelow, 9 Gareth Davies, 8 Aaron Wainwright, 7 Jac Morgan (c), 6 Christ Tshiunza, 5 Will Rowlands, 4 Dafydd Jenkins, 3 Keiron Assiratti, 2 Ryan Elias, 1 Corey Domachowski

Replacements: 16 Elliot Dee, 17 Nicky Smith, 18 Henry Thomas, 19 Ben Carter, 20 Taine Plumtree, 21 Tomos Williams, 22 Dan Biggar, 23 Mason Grady

England: 15 Freddie Steward, 14 Max Malins, 13 Joe Marchant, 12 Guy Porter, 11 Joe Cokanasiga, 10 Marcus Smith, 9 Danny Care, 8 Alex Dombrandt, 7 Tom Pearson, 6 Lewis Ludlam, 5 George Martin, 4 David Ribbans, 3 Will Stuart, 2 Jamie Blamire, 1 Ellis Genge (c)

Replacements: 16 Theo Dan, 17 Bevan Rodd, 18 Kyle Sinckler, 19 Jonny Hill, 20 Tom Willis, 21 Jack van Poortvliet, 22 George Ford, 23 Henry Slade