Steve Borthwick has named an unchanged England starting lineup for Saturday’s clash with Australia as he puts his faith in the side beaten by New Zealand last weekend.
Borthwick’s men opened their November campaign with a 24-22 defeat against the All Blacks as George Ford missed a last-gap drop goal.
But the same starting line-up has been retained for the second of four Tests at Twickenham this month.
Borthwick has made a positional switch in midfield where Henry Slade and Ollie Lawrence have swapped between inside and outside centre.
The only adjustments in personnel are made to the bench where Luke Cowan-Dickie replaces Theo Dan at hooker and Ben Curry makes way to accommodate a return to a five-three split between forwards and backs.
Cowan-Dickie’s last England appearance came two years ago in Eddie Jones’ final match in charge against the Wallabies, meaning he is poised to make his first outing under Borthwick.
The 31-year-old’s international career has been hampered by neck surgery that caused nerve damage when it went wrong and atrial fibrillation, a heart condition.
Northampton wing Ollie Sleightholme is drafted to the bench to complete the replacement backs.
England are looking to bounce back from a third successive narrow loss to the All Blacks.
England have won 10 of their last 11 meetings with Australia, while the Wallabies have lost their last three matches under head coach Joe Schmidt.
Australia have dropped to ninth in the world rankings in the wake of a Rugby Championship in which they managed only one win in their six matches, but Borthwick will not underestimate them.
“Facing Australia is always a massive challenge and we’ll work diligently this week to ensure we’re physically and tactically prepared to take on the Wallabies,” he said.
“The passion and energy from the crowd at Allianz Stadium last weekend was absolutely brilliant, from the opening whistle to the final moments, and we can’t wait to be back at home this Saturday.”
Photo: David Rogers/Getty Images
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