George Ford will start for England at fly-half vs Italy in the Six Nations due to Marcus Smith’s injury, with centre Fraser Dingwall and flanker Ethan Roots in for their Test debuts in Rome.
Smith injured his calf at England’s training camp in Girona last week, ruling him out to leave Ford and the uncapped Fin Smith as Steve Borthwick’s only fly-half options, with previous skipper Owen Farrell having made himself unavailable.
Northampton centre Dingwall – who is also qualified for Scotland – starts alongside the recalled Henry Slade in midfield, while Exeter’s New Zealand-born Roots is named alongside Sam Underhill and Ben Earl in the back-row.
England’s bench contains three uncapped players in Smith, Harlequins back-row Chandler Cunningham-South, and Exeter’s Cardiff-born-and-raised wing Immanuel Feyi-Waboso.
England: 15 Freddie Steward, 14 Tommy Freeman, 13 Henry Slade, 12 Fraser Dingwall, 11 Elliot Daly, 10 George Ford, 9 Danny Care; 1 Joe Marler, 2 Jamie George (c), 3 Will Stuart, 4 Maro Itoje, 5 Ollie Chessum, 6 Ethan Roots, 7 Sam Underhill, 8 Ben Earl
Replacements: 16 Theo Dan, 17 Ellis Genge, 18 Dan Cole, 19 Alex Coles, 20 Chandler Cunningham-South, 21 Danny Care, 22 Fin Smith, 23 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso.
Italy: 15 Tommaso Allan, 14 Ange Capuozzo, 13 Ignacio Brex, 12 Tommaso Menoncello, 11 Monty Ioane, 10 Paolo Garbisi, 9 Alessandro Garbisi; 1 Danilo Fischetti, 2 Gianmarco Lucchesi, 3 Pietro Ceccarelli, 4 Niccolo Cannone, 5 Federico Ruzza, 6 Sebastian Negri,6 Sebastian Negri, 7 Michele Lamaro (c), 8 Lorenzo Cannone.
Replacements: 16 Giacomo Nicotera, 17 Mirco Spagnolo, 18 Giosue Zilocchi, 19 Andrea Zambonin, 20 Edoardo Iachizzi, 21 Manuel Zuliani, 22 Stephen Varney, 23 Lorenzo Pani.
More to follow…
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