Alex Coles, Tommy Freeman and Fin Smith all start for England in their Nations Championship opener, with Alex Mitchell and Henry Pollock also named amongst the matchday 23 set to face South Africa.
The quintet of Saints will take to Ellis Park in Johannesburg on Saturday (4 July, kick-off: 4.40pm UK time).
Freeman starts in England’s centres for the fifth time in 2026, fresh from scoring one of Saints’ four tries in the Gallagher PREM Final that saw Northampton lift a second league trophy in three seasons.
Saints teammates Coles and Smith, who scored 11 of Northampton’s 26 points in the Final, both retain their starting places at lock and fly-half respectively from England’s last outing when they faced France in the final Six Nations clash back in March.
Scrum-half Mitchell – who returned from injury in Saints’ title-winning clash with Exeter Chiefs two weeks ago – will earn his 31st England cap should he enter the action from the bench and is joined there by the PREM Final’s Man of the Match Pollock, who hopes to claim an 11th cap in Johannesburg.
“Playing South Africa at Ellis Park is one of the great Tests in world rugby and an opportunity we’re excited to embrace,” said England head coach Steve Borthwick.
“We’ve prepared well since we arrived here last week and I sense a real excitement within the squad to get our Nations Championship campaign underway.”
Following the match in Johannesburg, England return for an ‘away’ fixture against Fiji at Everton’s Hill Dickinson Stadium in Liverpool before travelling to Argentina to face Los Pumas at Estadio Único Madre de Ciudades, Santiago del Estero in Round 3.
All Nations Championship matches will be broadcast live on ITV Sport.
ENGLAND SQUAD TO FACE SOUTH AFRICA
Saturday 4 July 2026
Ellis Park, Johannesburg
Kick-off: 4.40pm BST
15 George Furbank (Harlequins, 14 caps)
14 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso (Exeter Chiefs, 13 caps)
13 Tommy Freeman (Northampton Saints, 27 caps)
12 Seb Atkinson (Gloucester Rugby, 4 caps)
11 Cadan Murley (Harlequins, 6 caps)
10 Fin Smith (Northampton Saints, 16 caps)
9 Jack van Poortvliet (Leicester Tigers, 24 caps)
1 Ellis Genge (Bristol Bears, 80 caps) – vice-captain
2 Jamie George (Saracens, 110 caps) – captain
3 Joe Heyes (Leicester Tigers, 22 caps)
4 Alex Coles (Northampton Saints, 19 caps)
5 George Martin (Saracens, 21 caps)
6 Ollie Chessum (Leicester Tigers, 35 caps) – vice-captain
7 Tom Curry (Sale Sharks, 68 caps)
8 Ben Earl (Saracens, 51 caps)
Replacements:
16 Luke Cowan-Dickie (Sale Sharks, 58 caps)
17 Beno Obano (Bath Rugby, 4 caps)
18 Asher Opoku-Fordjour (Sale Sharks, 6 caps)
19 Charlie Ewels (Bath Rugby, 34 caps)
20 Guy Pepper (Bath Rugby, 12 caps)
21 Henry Pollock (Northampton Saints, 10 caps)
22 Alex Mitchell (Northampton Saints, 30 caps)
23 Marcus Smith (Harlequins, 50 caps)