First start: Joe Launchbury
Joe Launchbury will start his first Test for England in Saturday's November International against South Africa at Twickenham.
The 21-year-old London Wasps lock has impressed off the bench against Fiji and Australia and gets his chance in a side showing six changes.
Tom Wood and Ben Morgan take over from Tom Johnson and Thomas Waldrom at flank and number eight respectively, while Alex Corbisiero comes in for Joe Marler at loosehead prop.
Mike Brown replaces Charlie Sharples on the left wing and Ben Youngs partners Leicester Tigers' team-mate Toby Flood at halfback.
There are also call-ups to the bench for the first time in this series for James Haskell, Mouritz Botha and Jonathan Joseph.
"We have picked a team that will give us the best chance of beating South Africa," said England head coach Stuart Lancaster.
"There were some tight calls, which is what you want as coaches, but the players we have brought into start have been training well, will bring a real motivation to make the most of their opportunity and will suit the challenge we face against a tough and physical South African team."
England: 15 Alex Goode, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Manu Tuilagi, 12 Brad Barritt, 11 Mike Brown, 10 Toby Flood, 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Ben Morgan, 7 Chris Robshaw (c), 6 Tom Wood, 5 Geoff Parling, 4 Joe Launchbury, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Tom Youngs, 1 Alex Corbisiero.
Replacements: 16 David Paice, 17 David Wilson, 18 Mako Vunipola, 19 Mouritz Botha, 20 James Haskell, 21 Danny Care, 22 Owen Farrell, 23 Jonathan Joseph.
Date: Saturday 24 November
Venue: Twickenham Stadium, London
Kick-off: 14:30 GMT (16:30 SA time)
Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
Assistant referees: Glen Jackson (New Zealand), Peter Fitzgibbon (Ireland)
Television match official: Jim Yuille (Scotland)
Comments
APV1 says...
Nice to see David Wilson on the team sheet. Eh, PR Ed..?
;-)
Good to see Corbs back and I like that Launchbury is starting.
Tom Wood - now's your chance. Please take it.
@ PontySurrey - that debate will rage and rage. I suspect SL's thought process is to get the two who play together every week to start the match. I don't think that Youngs is significantly worse than Care, although I agree DC is better.
Posted 12:27 22nd November 2012
gingergenius says...
they'll be competitive.
Very optimistic here, but if we put ourselves a few years down the line and imagine a team full of English players of proven/ potential world class, what might we get?
1. M.Vunipola
2. Hartley
3. Cole
4. Lawes
5. Launchbury
6. Croft
7. S.Armitage
8. B.Vunipola
9. B.Youngs
10. Ford/ Burns
11. Wade
12. Tuilagi
13. Joseph
14. Ashton
15. Foden
Posted 12:22 22nd November 2012
heathy says...
Team as predicted apart from the second row and scrum half. I thought Danny Care had been playing well and is more of a threat than Ben Youngs. Then again, Ben Youngs is a bigger guy and is used to the Boks game. When it gets looser, this is the time to bring both Care and JJ on. I'm suprised at the change of second row though. I am glad Launchbury is getting a run on as I think he has a good future and is playing well at the moment. Parling is unlucky as he has been playing well but also has a knee injury so he may not be fit. Then again, we need grunt in the second row and Botha offers that as he is a big unit (and played in the test series during the tour in the summer). I agree with jestnation as we really don't want to play them at their own game. They will be far better at it. We need to keep it loose but not silly. Our defence was better against the Aussies but we we naive in the tackle area. We will have to improve a lot for this game. It's certainly one for the taking as the Boks haven't looked that good of late. Then again, nor did the Aussies until they brought their A Game last week!!!!! It is true we are not going to reach 4th spot (unless France have a collapse and we murder the Boks and New Zealand - which ISN'T going to happen) so we may as well play some rugby with the sheckles off. This could go either way. @ BokAvenger - had a wee chuckle at that comment. Good one matey. He's a young lad and this will be a baptism of fire for sure. I hope you're wrong lol
Posted 12:05 22nd November 2012
markpat says...
@PontySurrey - while I agree with this statement, he hasn't really shown it recently. Neither are playing particularly well, in my opinion.
Posted 11:56 22nd November 2012
MDCU2584 says...
jestnation, I agree almost. Will be much happier when Lawes is back fit to replace lightweight Parling, and obviously Hartley for Youngs.
Not too sure what the difference was between Palmer and Parling, but the beardy one just never looks like he's doing anything. Not in a Richard Hill, he's actually doing so much you won't believe it, type way, but in a (when playing for England) Borthwick kind of way, and that's not good in my opinion.
Posted 11:51 22nd November 2012
Centre12 says...
@Chinstan
Wow that is a horrendous attitude to have, imagine if Pumas coach had that attitude when playing in the Rugby Championship, "lads they are all ranked higher than us so if they beat us, so what, they are ranked higher than us". Sorry mate that does not bode well with me, not even a little bit.
@PontySurrey
Couldn't agree more and the only other alteration I would have made would have been to put JJ on the Wing and Brown at #15 allowing JJ & Tuilagi to interchange at #13.
Posted 11:29 22nd November 2012
Huffalot says...
Hmmmmm... Is it just me or is Tom Wood more of a 7 & Robshaw a blatant 6?
Posted 11:11 22nd November 2012
sirtidychris says...
Can't argue too much with that side, surprised youngs gets the nod over Care as i would say youngs has been the worse of the two but with those guys you need to keep swapping them as they start giving slow, crabbing ball after starting 2/3 games in a row. Will be interesting to see how Brown gets on at wing, there may have been a case for manu or JJ there but as JJ has been out for a while the bench may be the best place and against the saffas we need manu's size in the centre. I cant understand why owen farrell is still there as he doesn't offer much apart from a safe boot in front of the posts, if we are 13 points down with 20 to go we could bring on burns or 12trees to give some go forward, but perhaps the six nations is the best time for such debuts.
Posted 11:10 22nd November 2012
PontySurrey says...
Danny Care a much better scrum half than Youngs.
Posted 11:01 22nd November 2012
jestnation says...
Hmmmm.......
Really happy with the pack.
Less so with the backs.
Perhaps the theory is that we can introduce JJ into the game once it's broken up a bit in the later stages but the thing that worries me about that is it implies that we'll spend 60 minutes going toe to toe with them and playing them at their own game.
If you try to play bok rugby against the boks they tend to be better at it!
Posted 10:53 22nd November 2012
GCP_jones says...
Come On England get the lead out of your boots(and more purple kit please), the Boks are nothing special.
It looks a good side to me
Posted 10:44 22nd November 2012
Chinstan says...
Very happy with that and I agree with SL of the players available think this is probably the best team that could have been picked to face SA.
On a seperate note France are on a roll and so 4th spot is gone so there is no pressure on Eng just, want to see them go out and play well. If we come off second best so what! SA are a higher ranked team and so it is theirs to lose. Still much happier with a close loss but playing well over a ground out win.
Posted 10:41 22nd November 2012
BokAvenger says...
After Saturday he'll have to change his name to Launchburied
Posted 10:40 22nd November 2012