
Freddie Steward and Jack van Poortvliet are set to return for England against South Africa on Saturday after Steve Borthwick made four changes to his starting XV to face the world champions.
Boss Borthwick used the same line-up for England, who lost narrowly to New Zealand and Australia over the past two weekends, but made significant changes to end their four-match winless run.
Steward comes on at full-back in place of George Furbank and Van Poortvliet replaces Ben Spencer at scrum-half in two seemingly tactical changes. Neither of the Leicester duo were included in the matchday 23 of the previous two games.
Winger Immanuel Feyi-Waboso and forward Tom Curry both missed the game against Australia with head injuries. Ollie Sleightholme is promoted from the bench to a starting role on the wing after scoring two tries against the Wallabies, while Sam Underhill slots into the back row.
The only remaining change to the England bench from last weekend was the addition of Sale Sharks winger Tom Roebuck. He will be making his second international appearance after competing in Japan in June.
This means Marcus Smith will continue to play flyhalf at the Allianz Stadium, with George Ford providing back-up from the bench.
“I’m delighted to be challenging the best team in the world to become back-to-back Rugby World Cup champions,” Borthwick said.
“Test matches against South Africa are always thrilling contests and I am sure Saturday will be no exception.”
England team faces South Africa: 15 Freddie Steward, 14 Tommy Freeman, 13 Ollie Lawrence, 12 Henry Slade, 11 Ollie Sleightholme, 10 Marcus Smith, 9 Jack van Poortvliet; 1 Ellis Genji, 2 Jamie George (captain), 3 Will Stewart, 4 Maro Itoje, 5 George Martin, 6 Chandler Cunningham-South, 7 Sam Underhill, 8 Ben Earl.
Replacement: 16 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17 Finn Baxter, 18 Dan Cole, 19 Nick Isiekwe, 20 Alex Dombrandt, 21 Harry Randall, 22 George Ford, 23 Tom Roebuck.
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