Daly to make first England start

The Rugby Paper Team

8 years ago

Tags: Australia, Bath, Eddie Jones, England, Gloucester, Harlequins, Joe Marler, Leicester, Leicester Tigers, Owen Farrell, Saracens, South Africa

Elliot Daly will make his first England start after being named at outside centre by Eddie Jones to face South Africa in the opening match of the autumn internationals at Twickenham.

Jones has named an experienced starting XV with England captain Dylan Hartley leading out a side with a total of 596 international caps between them as they aim to defeat the Springboks for the first time since 2006.
With outside-centre Jonathan Joseph carrying a slight groin injury, Daly (Wasps) will make his sixth international appearance having come off the bench to earn his previous caps.
In the absence of James Haskell, Tom Wood (Northampton Saints) returns to the England team at flanker with Jonny May (Gloucester Rugby) also back on the left-wing following a lengthy injury lay-off.
Debutants Kyle Sinckler (Harlequins) and Nathan Hughes (Wasps) are named as replacements as is uncapped centre Ben Te’o (Worcester Warriors).
Elsewhere second-row Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints) will earn his 50th England cap on Saturday having made his debut against Australia at Twickenham in 2009. He partners Joe Launchbury in the absence of injured Saracens duo George Kruis and Maro Itoje.
There are also returns for Joe Marler (Harlequins) and Dave Attwood (Bath Rugby) who are both among the replacements.
“We’ve picked a matchday 23 with a blend of experience and youth,” said Jones.
“We’ve trained well this week and I am pleased with how the players have come together and responded to some of the things we’ve asked them to do. The boys are focussed and ready to go.
“We’re looking forward to the game. It’s a fantastic opportunity to show how much depth we have in English rugby. With a few influential players not available for selection this is a great opportunity for some of the new faces to put both feet forward and we’re backing them to do the job for us.
“Test matches are always about the contest up front and South Africa pride themselves in the set piece but we’ll be ready for the challenge.”
England also face Fiji, Argentina and Australia in the series and Jones added: “We can’t wait to get back to Twickenham.
“It’s a very special stadium and we hope the crowd really gets behind us on Saturday. We want to make Twickenham an intimidating place for opposition teams to play rugby and the fans can contribute to that.”
England: Mike Brown (vice captain, Harlequins, 52 caps), Marland Yarde (Harlequins, 9 caps), Elliot Daly (Wasps, 5 caps), Owen Farrell (vice captain, Saracens, 43 caps), Jonny May (Gloucester Rugby, 19 caps), George Ford (Bath Rugby, 26 caps), Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers, 61 caps), Mako Vunipola (Saracens, 35 caps), Dylan Hartley (captain, Northampton Saints, 75 caps), Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers, 65 caps), Joe Launchbury (Wasps, 35 caps), Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints, 49 caps), Chris Robshaw (Harlequins, 51 caps), Tom Wood (Northampton Saints, 42 caps), Billy Vunipola (vice captain, Saracens, 29 caps)
Replacements: Jamie George (Saracens, 8 caps), Joe Marler (Harlequins, 42 caps), Kyle Sinckler (Harlequins, uncapped), Dave Attwood (Bath Rugby, 23 caps), Nathan Hughes (Wasps, uncapped), Danny Care (Harlequins, 62 caps), Ben Te’o (Worcester Warriors, uncapped), Jonathan Joseph (Bath Rugby, 25 caps)