Eddie’s England for Springbok opener

Eddie Jones has named his side to face the Springboks in the opening of the November tests.

Dylan Hartley and Owen Farrell co-captain a starting XV with only one new cap, in Alec Hepburn. Two more debutants have been selected on the bench, Zach Mercer and Ben Moon.

Manu Tualagi’s return to the field (from the bench) is much anticipated after last appearing for England in 2016.

Of the squad Jones said:

“We’ve become very well organised in our set piece and have done a lot of good work in Portugal over the last week.”

“We have put in a new defence system and our attack looks more organised than it was on the South Africa tour.”

Elaborating on his opposition, Jones said:

“Against South Africa you have got the physical battle up front and then you have to be tactically smart in how you attack against them. We need to find ways to gain momentum, then once we find momentum, convert that to points.

“We are really excited to be back at Twickenham Stadium. It’s been a long time and we can’t wait to play in front of 82 000 fans.”

England

15 Elliot Daly, 14 Jack Nowell, 13 Henry Slade, 12 Ben Te’o, 11 Jonny May, 10 Owen Farrell (co-captain), 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Mark Wilson, 7 Tom Curry, 6 Brad Shields, 5 George Kruis, 4 Maro Itoje, 3 Kyle Sinckler, 2 Dylan Hartley (co-captain), 1 Alec Hepburn

Substitutes: 16 Jamie George, 17 Ben Moon, 18 Harry Williams, 19 Charlie Ewels, 20 Zach Mercer, 21 Danny Care, 22 George Ford, 23 Manu Tuilagi