Stuart Lancaster has handed maiden World Cup starts to four players, and made eight changes in total, for the dead rubber against Uruguay on Saturday.
Henry Slade, Jack Nowell, Danny Care and Alex Goode all come into Lancaster’s starting XV for the Pool A match at Old Trafford. In the pack, Mako Vunipola starts in place of Joe Marler at loosehead prop, with James Haskell and Nick Easter replacing Tom Wood and Ben Morgan in the back row.
Owen Farrell also takes over from the injured Brad Barritt at No12 with George Ford returning to fly-half. Sam Burgess has been dropped altogether from the matchday 23.
The changes do not come as a huge surprise in light of England’s failure to progress to the knockout stages of the tournament following their defeat to Australia at Twickenham last Saturday.
“This is an opportunity for us to finish the tournament with a strong performance against Uruguay and a chance for the likes of young players such as Jack Nowell and Henry Slade to play in a World Cup,” said Lancaster. “We owe it to ourselves and the supporters who have been brilliant throughout. This is an important game for rugby in the north of England and we want to give those people who have been looking forward to this game something to cheer about.”
England team v Uruguay, Etihad Stadium, Saturday 10 October
15 Alex Goode (Saracens) 14 Anthony Watson (Bath ) 13 Henry Slade (Exeter ) 12 Owen Farrell (Saracens) 11 Jack Nowell (Exeter) 10 George Ford (Bath ) 9 Danny Care (Harlequins) 1 Mako Vunipola (Saracens) 2 Tom Youngs (Leicester ) 3 Dan Cole (Leicester) 4 Joe Launchbury (Wasps) 5 Geoff Parling (Exeter) 6 James Haskell (Wasps) 7 Chris Robshaw (capt) (Harlequins) 8 Nick Easter (Harlequins) Replacements 16 Jamie George (Saracens) 17 Joe Marler (Harlequins) 18 David Wilson (Bath) 19 George Kruis (Saracens) 20 Tom Wood (Northampton) 21 Richard Wigglesworth (Saracens) 22 Jonathan Joseph (Bath) 23 Mike Brown (Harlequins)
