George Furbank will make his international debut at full-back, while Charlie Ewels starts in the second row as Eddie Jones named his England side to take on France in their Guinness Six Nations opener.
Furbank has hugely impressed for Northampton Saints this season and makes up a back-three also comprising of Elliot Daly and Jonny May, following Anthony Watson’s late unavailability due to injury.
Ewels will win his 13th England cap and appear in the Guinness Six Nations for the first time when he lines up in the engine room alongside Maro Itoje, while Owen Farrell captains the side from inside centre.
There is 675 caps worth of experience in the starting XV – with Ben Youngs set to play his 96th Test at scrum-half and Courtney Lawes winning his 82nd cap as part of the back row.
Joe Marler will play his first Championship game since 2018 following last year’s temporary international retirement, while uncapped prop Will Stuart and one-cap back Ollie Devoto are among the replacements.
And Jones is ready to take on Les Bleus in Paris ahead of his fifth Guinness Six Nations as England head coach.
“It has been a massively exciting week for us,” he said. “It is the start of the Guinness Six Nations, the best rugby tournament in the world. We have had a great preparation in Portugal with a quality training week this week.
“We have really worried about ourselves, getting ourselves right. We have picked a strong forward pack which is part of the England way and an exciting backline with young George Furbank playing his first Test at full-back.
“France can expect absolute brutality from England, we are going to go out there to make sure they understand what Test rugby is. It is about being brutal, it is about being physical and it is about dominating the set-piece.”
England starting XV to face France 15 George Furbank (Northampton Saints, uncapped) 14 Jonny May (Leicester Tigers, 52 caps) 13 Manu Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers, 40 caps) 12 Owen Farrell (Saracens, 79 caps) C 11 Elliot Daly (Saracens, 39 caps) 10 George Ford (Leicester Tigers, 65 caps) 9 Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers, 95 caps) 1 Joe Marler (Harlequins, 68 caps) 2 Jamie George (Saracens, 45 caps) 3 Kyle Sinckler (Harlequins, 31 caps) 4 Maro Itoje (Saracens, 34 caps) 5 Charlie Ewels (Bath Rugby, 12 caps) 6 Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints, 81 caps) 7 Sam Underhill (Bath Rugby, 15 caps) 8 Tom Curry (Sale Sharks, 19 caps)
Replacements 16 Luke Cowan-Dickie (Exeter Chiefs, 21 caps) 17 Ellis Genge (Leicester Tigers, 14 caps) 18 Will Stuart (Bath Rugby, uncapped) 19 George Kruis (Saracens, 41 caps) 20 Lewis Ludlam (Northampton Saints, 6 caps) 21 Willi Heinz (Gloucester Rugby, 9 caps) 22 Ollie Devoto (Exeter Chiefs, 1 cap) 23 Jonathan Joseph (Bath Rugby, 47 caps)
