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England reshuffle front row in team to face All Blacks

Joe Marler at England training. Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images

Steve Borthwick has named the England team that will look to tackle New Zealand in the opening Test of their July Series on Saturday.

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The team features two changes from the side that beat Japan in Tokyo last month, with a front-row switch seeing Joe Marler and Will Stuart start alongside captain Jamie George.

Test rookies Fin Baxter and Ollie Sleightholme have been named on the bench, set for potential debuts under the roof in Dunedin.

“It doesn’t get more challenging than playing New Zealand at home, but it’s exactly where we want to be. We want to find out more about ourselves and test ourselves against one of the best teams in the world.

“Test rugby is a game of fine margins, so our mindset is going to be very important on Saturday. We’ll need to be mentally strong, play a tactically smart game and ensure we maintain our discipline.

“The Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin is a great venue with a quick surface, and the closed roof should make the atmosphere very special.”

Related

England team to play New Zealand

15. George Furbank

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14. Immanuel Feyi-Waboso

13. Henry Slade – vice-captain

12. Ollie Lawrence

11. Tommy Freeman

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10. Marcus Smith

9. Alex Mitchell

1. Joe Marler – vice-captain

2. Jamie George – captain

3. Will Stuart

4. Maro Itoje – vice-captain

5. George Martin

6. Chandler Cunningham-South

7. Sam Underhill

8. Ben Earl – vice-captain

Replacements

16. Theo Dan

17. Fin Baxter

18. Dan Cole

19. Alex Coles

20. Tom Curry

21. Ben Spencer

22. Fin Smith

23. Ollie Sleightholme

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Comments

14 Comments
P
Perthstayer 266 days ago

England can deliver strong set piece. Scrum has good experience and new guys combination (Cole on bench is handy).

George is a gun at lineout and there's Underhill who was a beast in Premiership final.

They have reason for confidence, look fwd to it.

J
Jacque 266 days ago

Weak tight 5 IMO. If you look at every TOP side in the World, England are nowhere near.

Believe NZ will give them a good hiding.

f
finn 266 days ago

Very surprising that Roebuck is outside the 23!

B
Blair 266 days ago

How many vice-captains does the team need?! smh

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JW 20 minutes ago
Kyren Taumoefolau All Blacks stance splits opinions on eligibility

MP are a NZ side through and through, NZ is even having to pay for it.

Yes they caved to public demand, I bet it accomplished a lot of internal goals. They could have left it to the other groups, but I’m of the belief that they weren’t showing the capability to make it work as being a good reason for NZR to jump in and do it. I think it’s actually funded 50/50 between NZR and WR though.

(when nothing was stopping a pi player playing for any side in Super Rugby)

Neither is that fact true. Only 3 non NZ players are allowed in each squad.


I see you also need to learn what the term poach means - take or acquire in an unfair or clandestine way. - Moana have more slots for non eligible players (and you have seen many return to an NZ franchise) so players are largely making their own choice without any outside coercion ala Julian Savea.

Not one of these Kiwis and Aussies would go live in the Islands to satisfy any criteria, and I’d say most of them have hardly ever set foot in the islands, outside of a holiday.

Another inaccurate statement. Take Mo’unga’s nephew Armstrong-Ravula, if he is not eligible via ancestry in a couple of generations time, he will be eligible because he plays his rugby there (even if he’s only their for rugby and not living there), that is a recent change made by World Rugby to better reflect examples like Fabian Holland and Fakatava.

It’s becoming the jump-ship/zero loyalty joke that international League is.

Look I understand you’re reason to cry and make an example at any opportunity, but you don’t really need to anymore, other recent changes made by WR are basically going to stop the Ireland situation, and time (perhaps no more than a decade) will fix the rest.

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