Marcus Smith has been recalled as one of seven changes to England’s starting XV for Saturday’s Test against Fiji at Twickenham.
Smith, primarily a flyhalf, was left out of the match 23 entirely as England launched their November campaign with a 25-7 win against Australia. George Ford started at 10, with Fin Smith providing flyhalf cover off the bench.
But with fullback Freddie Steward struggling with a hand injury suffered against Australia, playmaker Smith is now back in the team wearing the No 15 shirt with Fin Smith starting at flyhalf.
Ellis Genge will lead the team as one of two co-captains, the second being regular skipper Maro Itoje who is named on the bench for the first time since 2017.
Only six players who started against Australia are in the same positions this weekend, with Tommy Freeman moving to the wing from centre and Ben Earl moving across from No 8 to openside flanker.
Earl’s back-row switch means Chandler Cunningham-South makes his first Test start at No 8 as England coach Steve Borthwick looks to build positional depth ahead of the 2027 World Cup in Australia following Tom Willis’s decision to leave England to join French side Bordeaux Begles next season.
England beat Fiji 30-24 in a tense 2023 World Cup quarter-final in Marseille, having lost to the Pacific islanders for the first time just weeks earlier in a pre-tournament warm-up game at Twickenham.
ENGLAND – 15 Marcus Smith, 14 Tommy Freeman, 13 Ollie Lawrence, 12 Fraser Dingwall, 11 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, 10 Fin Smith, 9 Alex Mitchell, 8 Chandler Cunningham-South, 7 Ben Earl, 6 Guy Pepper, 5 Ollie Chessum, 4 Alex Coles, 3 Joe Heyes, 2 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 1 Ellis Genge.
Bench: 16 Jamie George, 17 Fin Baxter, 18 Asher Opoku-Fordjour, 19 Maro Itoje, 20 Tom Curry, 21 Henry Pollock, 22 Ben Spencer, 23 Henry Arundell.
Photo: David Rogers/Getty Images
The post Smith starts at fullback for England appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Marcus Smith has been recalled as one of seven changes to England’s starting XV for Saturday’s Test against Fiji at Twickenham.
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