Starter: Tom Youngs
England have named Tom Youngs and Alex Goode in their starting line-up for their opening November Test fixture with Fiji at Twickenham on Saturday.
The Leicester Tigers hooker, who played twice in midweek during the June tour of South Africa, will start alongside Joe Marler and Dan Cole as England are set to kick-off their four-Test series.
There are five changes to the XV from the final Test against the Boks, including Charlie Sharples coming on to the right wing for Chris Ashton and Ugo Monye taking over from Ben Foden on the left.
Brad Barritt will partner Manusamoa Tulagi in the centre while Chris Robshaw returns as captain at openside flanker for James Haskell.
"This QBE International series will be a real marker of where we are as a squad. We are playing four back to back matches in four weeks against the top teams in the world and we are confident we can rise to the challenge. The foundations are in place, now it's time for us to execute and deliver," said England Head Coach Stuart Lancaster.
"Fiji is a good first Test for us and we can't wait to play back at Twickenham. The atmosphere against Ireland back in March was superb and you can't underestimate what it means to the players to have 82,000 people and the nation behind them.
"Congratulations to Tom Youngs, who has made a great transition from centre to hooker in a short period and deserves his chance, as do Joe Launchbury and Mako Vunipola, who we are pleased to be able to include in the squad."
England: 15 Alex Goode, 14 Charlie Sharples, 13 Manu Tuilagi, 12 Brad Barritt, 11 Ugo Monye, 10 Toby Flood, 9 Danny Care, 8 Thomas Waldrom, 7 Chris Robshaw, 6 Tom Johnson, 5 Geoff Parling, 4 Tom Palmer, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Tom Youngs, 1 Joe Marler.
Replacements: 16 David Paice, 17 David Wilson, 18 Mako Vunipola, 19 Joe Launchbury, 20 Tom Wood, 21. Ben Youngs, 22 Owen Farrell, 23 Mike Brown.
Date: Saturday, November 10
Kick-off: 14:30
Venue: Twickenham
Referee: Glen Jackson (New Zealand)
Assistant referees: Craig Joubert, Marius Mitrea (Italy)
Television match official: Gareth Simmonds (Wales)
Comments
kappelange says...
Ask yourself the question;
would any of these players even make a SR Sharks or Stormers starting 15?
There isnt a single player to get excited about in this squad. They'll still beat some teams mediocre teams or teams with mediocre coaches (Sprinboks), but man what has happened to English rugby in the last eight years? Even some minnow teams have some special players in them, not a single one in this team or in their training group.
Posted 11:07 08th November 2012
melkdave says...
Definatly a few surprises there,but im guessing SLand co are still looking to build for the future,so are trying things out.Still think M.Brown will be FB come the supposedly harder tests against the ABs ,wobblies and Bokke,along with Ashton.Shame Burns and 12Trees wherent considered for this match,also.Hopefully an extended EPS for the 6Ns campaign will see them in the mix along with the injured players returning.Overall it does look a very capable team ,and should hopefully win this weekend
Posted 10:59 08th November 2012
1st58 says...
Good luck to him, however what is really worrying is that England have very few World class players, and one of the few - S. Armitage is not in the squad. We cannot afford to take these stances against English players who play overseas, players like Armitage are just too few and far between.
The selection seems fair, although I think the lack of a really good 10 does hamper England (Flood prob as good as we have), and the back row doesnt really inspire. The good news is that Attwood is starting to realise his huge potential, and it will be great to see him along with Lawes and Parling providing a really good 2row partnership (if he gets selected of course).
Posted 10:56 08th November 2012
Chubbylugs says...
If this was the starting team against Australia next week, I'd be worried. Green would be the word that comes to mind, but credit to Lancaster for being prepared to give young form players a go
Posted 10:51 08th November 2012
rugby_rockstar says...
I wonder who'll be playing 10 for Saracens with Farrel and Goode with england and Hodgson injured. Quick! Buy Butch James!
Seriously, I like that Goode has been given the 15 shirt. I remember the Newcastle vs Saracens match last year. Played in appaulling conditions on a friday night, a real kick-athon. Except the whenever Goode got the ball, he counter attacked and made ground, dispite a pretty good chase from the Falcons. I know its against Fiji but I'm pleased to see him given a run.
Care was cast in stone as no.9 - no brainer. Here's a chance to kick on from his troubles early in the year.
Ugo - I think he's a lost cause to be honest. Probably the worst finisher in the Europe.
Nice to see Tom Wood involved again. This guy can go all the way and nail a back row shirt. It'll be interesting to see if Lancaster is flexible enough to entertain Wood playing 7 in the long term. I think he's faster and stronger than Robshaw and you'll need that against France, Wales, a full strength Ireland and scotland, SA and NZ. Back row play is a war zone in modern rugby.
I hope MiniFaz gets 15 minutes at ten. just so we can measure him against Toby Flood. There's an argument that Freddie Burns could have been on the bench against Fiji. I suppose that if Gloucester make it to the quarterfinals of the Euro Shield then they'll face tough oposition who have dropped down from the European Cup and that in itself will give lancaster a chance to measure Burns against big international crash ball merchants.
Posted 10:49 08th November 2012
fattysock says...
"Congratulations to Tom Youngs, who has made a great transition from centre to hooker in a short period"
Wait, what?
Sorry, I've been out of the loop for a bit - what's the deal here? Centre to hooker is not something you would commonly see...
Posted 10:42 08th November 2012