LONDON :England coach Steve Borthwick has resisted the urge for a widespread shake-up of his team to play Japan on Sunday, with the recall of George Furbank and Tom Curry the only changes to the side beaten by South Africa last week.
After five successive defeats, England will expect to get back to winning ways against Eddie Jones’s Japan team in their final match of the Autumn Series and Borthwick clearly decided this was no time to experiment.
Furbank reclaims his regular fullback spot from Freddie Steward, while Curry, who missed the last match after suffering a concussion against Australia, is back in place of Chandler Cunningham-South, who drops to the bench.
Alongside him are uncapped 20-year-old prop Asher Opoku-Fordjour and Fin Baxter, who replaces George Ford as flyhalf cover for Marcus Smith.
“Japan are a different tactical challenge to what we faced last week,” Borthwick said. “We want to do some different things in the way we attack this week, hence the selection at fullback.
“It’s a back row we played once before in the World Cup in 2023 and it’s a back row that’s got a lot of speed and athleticism.
“Japan want to play fast but we want to play fast.”
Although they beat Uruguay in France last week, Japan were thumped by 52-12 by France and 64-19 by New Zealand before that and England beat them 52-17 in Tokyo in June.
Borthwick, however, who was an assistant coach with the country under Jones when they stunned South Africa at the 2015 World Cup, said he was not tempted to follow the example of most of the other Tier One nations in this series by bringing in more new faces for their “easier match”.
“I’ve talked at length about the need for continuity as one element of selection,” Borthwick said. “I think this (Opoku-Fordjour) is the ninth new cap in 12 test matches. I think when you start looking at the transition of where this team is now compared to where it was a year ago, I’d say there’s been a lot of transition through this year already.
“I think we’ve moved on to a younger group of players very quickly this year.”
Despite England losing three home games in a row for the first time since 2006, Borthwick said he had been buoyed by the positive reaction of supporters who he felt could see what the team were trying to do.
“I think a lot of the systems have gone well, against the best teams in the world we put ourselves in a position to win.
“Not delivering the final blow is certainly something we’re disappointed and frustrated about, but many of the things have been working very well to get into those positions.”
Jones named his team for the game earlier on Friday but withdrew from a scheduled on-line press conference after feeling unwell and has not spoken to the British media all week.
England team to play Japan on Sunday (16.10GMT)
15. George Furbank (Northampton Saints, 13 caps)
14. Tommy Freeman (Northampton Saints, 14 caps)
13. Ollie Lawrence (Bath Rugby, 30 caps)
12. Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs, 68 caps)
11. Ollie Sleightholme (Northampton Saints, 4 caps)
10. Marcus Smith (Harlequins, 38 caps)
9. Jack van Poortvliet (Leicester Tigers, 15 caps)
1. Ellis Genge (Bristol Bears, 65 caps) – vice-captain
2. Jamie George (Saracens, 96 caps) – captain
3. Will Stuart (Bath Rugby, 44 caps)
4. Maro Itoje (Saracens, 87 caps) – vice-captain
5. George Martin (Leicester Tigers, 18 caps)
6. Tom Curry (Sale Sharks, 55 caps)
7. Sam Underhill (Bath Rugby, 39 caps)
8. Ben Earl (Saracens, 36 caps) – vice-captain
Replacements:
16. Luke Cowan-Dickie (Sale Sharks, 43 caps)
17. Fin Baxter (Harlequins, 5 caps)
18. Asher Opoku-Fordjour (Sale Sharks, uncapped)
19. Nick Isiekwe (Saracens, 14 caps)
20. Chandler Cunningham-South (Harlequins, 10 caps)
21. Harry Randall (Bristol Bears, 10 caps)
22. Fin Smith (Northampton Saints, 5 caps)
23. Tom Roebuck (Sale Sharks, 2 caps)
