England head coach Eddie Jones has included three forwards from Franklin’s Gardens in the starting line-up for Saturday’s clash with Fiji.
Skipper Dylan Hartley and Courtney Lawes have retained their places from the win over South Africa, with Teimana Harrison coming in for Tom Wood in the back row. The trio’s selection means that there will be five Saints taking part in the match, prop Campese Ma’afu and lock Api Ratuniyarawa both starting for Fiji.
Harrison’s introduction is the only change up front, with three more being made to the back line, Bath’s Jonathan Joseph and Semesa Rokoduguni joining Saracens’ Alex Goode for their first action of the 2016 Autumn International series.
“We’ve picked a side to beat Fiji,” said Jones.
“Every Test match is an opportunity for us to keep improving and to increase the depth of the squad. We’ve made a few changes from last week and those players have a great chance to put their best foot forward and make the team better.
“England at Twickenham is the game Fiji will have targeted on their tour. They are one of the iconic rugby nations of the world and we respect them enormously. They bring flair and an unbridled enthusiasm to move the ball at pace, with running skills – if the game becomes unstructured they can be a very dangerous team. They’ll come to Twickenham with no fear and hungry to cause an upset.
“While we were satisfied with last week’s result against South Africa, there was plenty to improve on. We want a much more complete performance on Saturday – we want to be in total control of the game and tidy-up the things we didn’t do well enough last weekend.”
Saturday’s game is being shown live on Sky Sports 2.
ENGLAND TEAM TO PLAY FIJI
Autumn Internationals
Twickenham
Saturday, November 19th, 2016
Kick off 2:30pm
15 Alex Goode (Saracens)
14 Semesa Rokoduguni (Bath)
13 Jonathan Joseph (Bath)
12 Owen Farrell (Saracens)
11 Elliot Daly (Wasps)
10 George Ford (Bath)
9 Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers)
1 Mako Vunipola (Saracens)
2 Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints)(capt)
3 Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers)
4 Joe Launchbury (Wasps)
5 Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints)
6 Chris Robshaw (Harlequins)
7 Teimana Harrison (Northampton Saints)
8 Billy Vunipola (Saracens)
16 Jamie George (Saracens)
17 Joe Marler (Harlequins)
18 Kyle Sinckler (Harlequins)
19 Charlie Ewels (Bath)
20 Nathan Hughes (Wasps)
21 Danny Care (Harlequins)
22 Ben Te’o (Worcester Warriors)
23 Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs)
