England today named three new caps in the starting team to face Scotland in Saturday’s RBS 6 Nations match at Murrayfield.
Saracens Brad Barritt and Owen Farrell will form a new centre pairing at international level, while Northampton Saints’ Phil Dowson makes his debut at No 8.
The match 22 sees five more uncapped players on the replacements’ bench – Rob Webber (London Wasps), Geoff Parling (Leicester Tigers), Ben Morgan (Scarlets), Lee Dickson (Northampton Saints) and Jordan Turner-Hall (Harlequins).
Head Coach Stuart Lancaster said: “We have been impressed with how the whole group has come together in the last 10 days and we have done a lot of work on and off the field.
“Now is the time to turn all that into a performance against Scotland that we can all be proud of. It is a massive challenge – Murrayfield, the first game of the Six Nations – but one we are relishing.”
England
15 Ben Foden (Northampton Saints)
14 Chris Ashton (Northampton Saints)
13 Brad Barritt (Saracens)*
12 Owen Farrell (Saracens)*
11 David Strettle (Saracens)
10 Charlie Hodgson (Saracens)
9 Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers)
1 Alex Corbisiero (London Irish)
2 Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints)
3 Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers)
4 Mouritz Botha (Saracens)
5 Tom Palmer (Stade Francais)
6 Tom Croft (Leicester Tigers)
7 Chris Robshaw (Harlequins, capt)
8 Phil Dowson (Northampton Saints)*
Replacements
16 Rob Webber (London Wasps)*
17 Matt Stevens (Saracens)
18 Geoff Parling (Leicester Tigers)*
19 Ben Morgan (Scarlets)*
20 Lee Dickson (Northampton Saints)*
21 Jordan Turner-Hall (Harlequins)*
22 Mike Brown (Harlequins)
*Uncapped
Charlie Sharples (Gloucester Rugby) and Joe Marler (Harlequins) will travel as reserves
