Six Nations - Uncapped trio start for England
England have named three uncapped players in their starting XV for the Six Nations opener against Scotland at Murrayfield on Saturday.
Saracens duo Brad Barritt and Owen Farrell (pictured) make up the centre pairing, with Northampton’s Phil Dowson also making his debut at No.8.
Fly-half Charlie Hodgson has been selected to start for the first time since June 2008 while wing David Strettle is another former star who finds himself back in the XV.
Mouritz Botha, who has one cap, starts at lock, while new captain Chris Robshaw - another single cap - features at openside flanker in a pack that contains Alex Corbisiero, Dylan Hartley and Dan Cole in the front row with Tom Palmer in the other lock position and Tom Croft at blindside flanker.
Ben Youngs is the scrum-half with Chris Ashton and Ben Foden picked at wing and full-back respectively.
Only six players who started the World Cup quarter-final defeat to France in October have survived.
There are five further uncapped players on the replacements’ bench: Rob Webber (London Wasps), Geoff Parling (Leicester Tigers), Ben Morgan (Scarlets), Lee Dickson (Northampton Saints) and Jordan Turner-Hall (Harlequins).
“We have been impressed with how the whole group has come together in the last 10 days and we have done a lot of work on and off the field," said head coach Stuart Lancaster.
“Now is the time to turn all that into a performance against Scotland that we can all be proud of. It is a massive challenge – Murrayfield, the first game of the Six Nations – but one we are relishing.”
Team: 15 Ben Foden (Northampton Saints), 14 Chris Ashton (Northampton Saints), 13 Brad Barritt (Saracens), 12 Owen Farrell (Saracens), 11 David Strettle (Saracens), 10 Charlie Hodgson (Saracens), 9 Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers), 1 Alex Corbisiero (London Irish), 2 Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints), 3 Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers), 4 Mouritz Botha (Saracens), 5 Tom Palmer (Stade Francais), 6 Tom Croft (Leicester Tigers), 7 Chris Robshaw (Harlequins, capt), 8 Phil Dowson (Northampton Saints)
Replacements: 16 Rob Webber (London Wasps), 17 Matt Stevens (Saracens), 18 Geoff Parling (Leicester Tigers), 19 Ben Morgan (Scarlets), 20 Lee Dickson (Northampton Saints), 21 Jordan Turner-Hall (Harlequins), 22 Mike Brown (Harlequins)
**Charlie Sharples (Gloucester Rugby) and Joe Marler (Harlequins) will travel as reserves**
Comment 58 - 77 of 77
Wayne Rooney`s Wig,reads all my shyte . wowhahahahaaahahahahah
IT NEVER FAILS WHAT, A PLONKA WOWHAHAHAHAHAHA
terry the inbred turd talks a load of shyte.
Claireco, just remind us all where the Irish top points scorer was born and bred?????? Your as bad as some of the Welsh for throwing stones around the glass house. lol.
terry the turd talks a load of shyte.
lol - dead jealous me icklear. its just too early to be up. And period due too.
wow claireco you sound really jealous. About someone who isn't in the squad and will never be again. Never figured you for a chip.
Ah , its good to be back, I miss all this banter from all the rugby experts , I see nothing has changed all the posts and threads are about England, we love that , Scotland just stays in the background , and the 'glory boys' take the flack , as I have said before ,we just turn up and play with the players we have. anyway , we welcome the English fans to Murayfield, and we hope to have at the least a good game, with a bit of luck the temp will be below freezing , we know these English cant stand the cold . one snow flake and its a blizzard where they come from , although I believe most of them are from sunny side of the planet hoho. may the best team win. good luck.
With a bit of luck England will get tonked. Good to see Wilco not there. How many years was he cheating for before being caught out at the World Cup?
It's worth repeating as it seems to upset all those Anglos that reckon the injury prone cheater was some sort of god. He was caught cheating at the last WC. End of.
Nice to see England bringing in yet another solid born and bred English player - Mr Barritt. What county in England is Durban in?
make sure you have good catchers in the stand, because thats were the ball is most of the time.
Scotland to win
not news
Have we really not got a better 10 than Hodgson?
I think the England selection is brave and could just work...My concern is Hodgson, Strettle and Youngs in the midfield. Are they really the best we can muster? Dont get me wrong, all fine players in their club shirts but once they pull on the white jersey they seem to lose all their skills and just cant hack it at that level. I think the front row will hold up against anything thrown at them, the wings are fine and foden usually solid in defence and can be dynamic in attack. Our only real problem player is Hodgson...or Chicken Charlie the Chump as we call him in our house and the negative effect he will have on Youngs and Strettle.
As a scarlets supporter I am happy to see Ben Morgan on the bench,he deseves it.
phillip ,Pink Pig, or richardcollins 66, or Edward Walters, or Peter C, or Howard T or David Peter, or Wayne Rooneys Wig, and more recently Anne The S LAG , hahahahahaha ,so your all those people hey WOW and you reckon your what ,intelligent hey you keep thinking that guys hahahaahhaahahaha TELL ME GUYS A LITTLE TEST FOR YOU , HOW MANY FINGERS WOULD YOU SAY AM I HOLDING UP AT THE MOMENT , well well you must be intelligent because that is right i,m holding TWO fingers up ,but it's been great winding you all up so many times.and it has been fantastic seeing you all bite on so many different occasions english or welsh that means nothing, and it is good to hear that your that intelligent that you would find so much time to be so many thick deranged individuals all in one go hahahahahahahah, but on a more serious note SCOTLAND WILL HAVE NO PROBLEMS THIS WEEK WITH THIS DYSFUNCTIONAL ENGLISH SET UP ,WALES WILL HAVE A MUCH HARDER TASK AGAINST THE IRISH , WHO ARE JUST WAITING TO KICK THE WELSH ALL OVER THE FIELD IF THEY SLIP UP .
if ther wer 7 natians in tha 6 natians wud they hav tae rename it tha 7 natians?
Give the England lads a chance you may be suprised. My worry is Hodgson some body is going to have to cover him and do his defensive work pj.
Phillip. I KINEW IT!!!!! at least you have had the ba=lls to own up, so are you really a Chiefs supporter or is that invented too?? Intelligent Welshman??, hahahaha thanks, but I too have had great fun winding you and your many aliases up. Sorry about my references to Exeter inbreeds, but you have to admit it's not too far off the truth hahahaha
How on earth can anyone say " Scotland are looking good"? No one has been seen since the world cup. Ross Ford captain. Wooden spoon for Scatland this year. Nothing has changed. Sack everyone and put the lottery chap in charge. He was the last Scotsman to get something right!!!!
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