Steve Borthwick keeps faith with same England players that lost to New Zealand
Borthwick’s only change is a positional switch in midfield where Henry Slade and Ollie Lawrence have swapped between inside and outside centre.
England will aim to ignite their autumn with the same team that was edged by New Zealand after Steve Borthwick opted against making any personnel changes for Saturday’s visit of Australia.
A 24-22 defeat by the All Blacks opened the Autumn Nations Series but the same XV have been retained for the second of four Tests at Allianz Stadium this month.
Borthwick has made a positional switch in midfield where Henry Slade and Ollie Lawrence have swapped between inside and outside centre.
The only adjustments in personnel are made to the bench where Luke Cowan-Dickie replaces Theo Dan at hooker and Ben Curry makes way to accommodate a return to a five-three split between forwards and backs.
Cowan-Dickie’s last England appearance came two years ago in Eddie Jones’ final match in charge against the Wallabies, meaning he poised to make his first outing under Borthwick.
The 31-year-old’s international career has been hampered by neck surgery that caused nerve damage when it went wrong and atrial fibrillation, a heart condition.
Northampton wing Ollie Sleightholme is drafted on to the bench to complete the compliment of replacement backs.
England are looking to bounce back from a third successive narrow loss to the All Blacks after George Ford missed with late penalty and drop-goal attempts that would have snatched victory.
Australia are not the force of old having dropped to ninth in the world rankings in the wake of a Rugby Championship in which they managed only one win in their six matches.
Eddie Jones, who was sacked by England after the final game of the 2022 autumn series against South Africa, took them to last autumn’s World Cup only to preside over a disastrous group exit, resulting in his departure.
Former Ireland boss Joe Schmidt now coaches the Wallabies.
“Facing Australia is always a massive challenge and we’ll work diligently this week to ensure we’re physically and tactically prepared to take on the Wallabies,” Borthwick said.
“The passion and energy from the crowd at Allianz Stadium last weekend was absolutely brilliant, from the opening whistle to the final moments, and we can’t wait to be back at home this Saturday.”
England team to play Australia at Allianz Stadium on Saturday, November 9 (3.10pm KO):
G Furbank (Northampton); I Feyi-Waboso (Exeter), O Lawrence (Bath), H Slade (Exeter), T Freeman (Northampton); M Smith (Harlequins), B Spencer (Bath); E Genge (Bristol), J George (Saracens, capt), W Stuart (Bath), M Itoje (Saracens), G Martin (Leicester), C Cunningham-South (Harlequins), T Curry (Sale) B Earl (Saracens).
Replacements: L Cowan-Dickie (Sale), F Baxter (Harlequins), D Cole (Leicester), N Isiekwe (Saracens), A Dombrandt (Harlequins), H Randall (Bristol), G Ford (Sale), O Sleightholme (Northampton).
