Thursday 9 June 2016 17:51, UK
Owen Farrell has deposed George Ford as England's fly-half in Eddie Jones' starting XV for England's first Test against Australia on Saturday.
Farrell makes his first start at fly-half under Jones after switching from inside centre while Ford, who missed six out of seven kicks at goal during the victory over Wales at Twickenham last week, drops to the replacements' bench.
Luther Burrell, who started at 12 against the Welsh while Farrell was on Premiership final duty with Saracens, keeps the jersey but there is no place for lock Joe Launchbury as Jones reinstates the Sarries' axis of Maro Itoje and George Kruis in the second row.
Harlequins' Marland Yarde retains his place on the wing after a strong performance against Wales and with the pack unchanged, skipper Dylan Hartley will lead out a side with 539 international caps between them.
Speaking to Sky Sports News HQ, Jones said his XV reflected his expectation of a highly physical encounter against his home country.
"I picked a team specifically for the gameplan against Australia," he said. "It's the first Test of the series, we know it's going to be a physical game, we've picked a team that can cope with it.
"You can define teams as either streetfighters or boxers. Boxers tend to be more calculated whereas streetfighters come out and want to hit you and then they see where the weakness is. Australia is a streetfighter, they want to come out and hit us and see what reaction they get."
Australia coach Michael Cheika has named three debutants in his side and Jones believes England's chances rest on pushing Australia back and putting their inexperienced players under pressure.
"If we win the gain-line we will put Australia under a lot of pressure, some of their new caps may feel more pressure than they've ever felt in their lives."
England have won only three games in Australia - a record Jones is eager to improve in the coming weeks.
"If you look at England's record in Australia it's pretty ordinary," he told England Rugby. "It's a great opportunity to put down a marker and create history. It's important we get off to a positive start and we'll arrive in Brisbane ready to play physical and aggressive rugby.
"We're excited to be playing against a strong Australian team in their backyard. The Wallabies are ranked second in the world and have the World Rugby coach of the year, so that's why they start as favourites. There's a lot of expectation on them to win the series convincingly.
"We have a young squad with an average age of 24 so we are still developing and improving. It'll be a great challenge for us and one we're looking forward to meeting head on."
England: 15 Mike Brown, 14 Anthony Watson, 13 Jonathan Joseph, 12 Luther Burrell, 11 Marland Yarde, 10 Owen Farrell, 9 Ben Youngs; 1 Mako Vunipola, 2 Dylan Hartley (c), 3 Dan Cole, 4 Maro Itoje, 5 George Kruis, 6 Chris Robshaw, 7 James Haskell, 8 Billy Vunipola.
Replacements: 16 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17 Matt Mullan, 18 Paul Hill, 19 Joe Launchbury, 20 Courtney Lawes, 21 Danny Care, 22 George Ford, 23 Jack Nowell.
