England head coach Eddie Jones has made five changes to his starting XV ahead of his side’s trip to play Scotland in Murrayfield on Saturday at 16 45.
There is a total of three changes to the forward pack with Mako Vunipola, George Kruis and Lewis Ludlam replacing Joe Marler, Charlie Ewels and Courtney Lawes respectively.
While in the back-line Willi Heinz steps in to take over from Ben Youngs, while Jonathan Joseph comes in to replace the injured Manu Tuilagi.
That means that it is Vunipola, Jamie George and Kyle Sinckler who make up the front-row, and they have Maro Itoje and Kruis behind them in the engine-room.
Lewis Ludlam starts as the blindside-flanker, with Sam Underhill continuing at openside and despite the changes regular flanker Tom Curry remains at No 8 in the absence of Billy Vunipola.
Heinz is joined in the half-backs by George Ford, with Owen Farrell at inside-centre once again and links up with Joseph in the midfield.
There is an unchanged back-three as Elliot Daly stays on the left-wing, with Jonny May on the right and last weekend’s debutant George Furbank gets another chance at full-back.
Jones has chosen to go for a six-two split on the bench with the likes of Joe Launchbury and Lawes among the forwards, while Ben Youngs and Ollie Devoto are the only backs among the replacements.
Speaking ahead of the game Jones is well aware of the threat that the Scots will pose and has warned his team that they will need to be in top form to come away with a win.
“Preparation this week has been great. We have sought to address the issues from the France game and have had a really good and sharp preparation for Scotland. Scotland are a dangerous side. They like to play with a lot of width and with a lot of flow and tempo in their game. We want to make sure we dominate the gain line. Their win record against England at Murrayfield is substantially higher than their overall record against us, so we have to recognise they are a dangerous beast and we have to be at our best to beat them,” he said.
Both England and Scotland will be hoping to bounce-back from opening round losses to France and Ireland respectively, but the visitors will also want to take back the Calcutta Cup, which the Scots have held for the past two years.
Check Out the Full 23-Man Squad Below.
Starting XV:
15 George Furbank (Northampton Saints, 1 cap)
14 Jonny May (Leicester Tigers, 53 caps)
13 Jonathan Joseph (Bath Rugby, 48 caps)
12 Owen Farrell (Saracens, 80 caps) C
11 Elliot Daly (Saracens, 40 caps)
10 George Ford (Leicester Tigers, 66 caps)
9 Willi Heinz (Gloucester Rugby, 10 caps)
1 Mako Vunipola (Saracens, 58 caps)
2 Jamie George (Saracens, 46 caps)
3 Kyle Sinckler (Harlequins, 32 caps)
4 Maro Itoje (Saracens, 35 caps)
5 George Kruis (Saracens, 42 caps)
6 Lewis Ludlam (Northampton Saints, 7 caps)
7 Sam Underhill (Bath Rugby, 16 caps)
8 Tom Curry (Sale Sharks, 20 caps)
Replacements:
16 Tom Dunn (Bath Rugby, uncapped)
17 Ellis Genge (Leicester Tigers, 15 caps)
18 Will Stuart (Bath Rugby, 1 cap)
19 Joe Launchbury (Wasps, 62 caps)
20 Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints, 82 caps)
21 Ben Earl (Saracens, uncapped)
22 Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers, 96 caps)
23 Ollie Devoto (Exeter Chiefs, 2 caps)
