Dylan Hartley, Courtney Lawes and Piers Francis will all be ‘finishers’ for a heavily altered England side when they welcome Samoa to Twickenham for their final Test match of 2017.
Forwards Hartley and Lawes – who was voted fans’ man of the match last weekend – have helped the side to two wins from two so far this month, but will start from the bench on Saturday as Eddie Jones rotates in a number of positions.
There are nine changes to the XV in total and more among the replacements, where Piers Francis returns to the squad looking to earn a third cap.
In the opposition ranks, meanwhile, Ahsee Tuala makes his third start of the Autumn at full back for the Samoans.
"This week it is an opportunity for some squad members who haven’t been playing to put their best foot forward," Jones commented.
"We want to follow up last week’s performance against Australia and play better again this week. Our intent in every game and every training session is to be better. We will have to play smart and will need to find ways to win the contest against Samoa."
ENGLAND TEAM TO PLAY SAMOA
Autumn Internationals
Twickenham
Saturday 25 November
Kick off 3:00pm
Live on Sky Sports
15 Mike Brown (Harlequins 63 caps)
14 Jonny May (Leicester Tigers 28 caps)
13 Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs 9 caps)
12 Alex Lozowski (Saracens 3 caps)
11 Elliot Daly (Wasps 15 caps)
10 George Ford (Leicester Tigers 39 caps)(co-capt)
9 Danny Care (Harlequins 75 caps)
1 Ellis Genge (Leicester Tigers 4 caps)
2 Jamie George (Saracens 19 caps)
3 Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers 76 caps)
4 Joe Launchbury (Wasps 46 caps)
5 Charlie Ewels (Bath Rugby 5 caps)
6 Maro Itoje (Saracens 13 caps)
7 Chris Robshaw (Harlequins 58 caps)(co-capt)
8 Sam Simmonds (Exeter Chiefs 2 caps)
16 Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints 88 caps)
17 Joe Marler (Harlequins 52 caps)
18 Harry Williams (Exeter Chiefs 4 caps)
19 Nick Isiekwe (Saracens 1 cap)
20 Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints 60 caps)
21 Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers 72 caps)
22 Piers Francis (Northampton Saints 2 caps)
23 Semesa Rokoduguni (Bath Rugby 3 caps)
A limited number of tickets for this game have been returned to the Saints Ticket Office. If you would like to book them, email [email protected] or call 01604 599140.
