Watch England vs Japan live on Sky Sports Action from 2.30pm on Saturday
Saturday 17 November 2018 08:29, UK
George Ford says it will be a "massive honour and privilege" to captain England against Japan.
Ford will take the armband in the third autumn international on Saturday, live on Sky Sports, with co-captains Dylan Hartley and Owen Farrell starting on the bench.
Ford will also reach 50 caps against Japan and the Leicester Tigers fly-half is grateful for the opportunity to lead his country out at Twickenham.
"It is a massive honour and privilege to be able to do that," said Ford. "But what I do in the week hasn't really changed that much.
"We've got some great leaders out there with me still and obviously with Dylan [Hartley] and Owen [Farrell] are on the bench.
"I am just excited to play again, especially in this team. It's an exciting team and we've got a great opportunity this week to take another step forward as a squad."
Joe Cokanasiga will come in as one of 11 changes to England's starting line-up for Saturday's Test and Ford says the uncapped Bath winger has impressed in training in the build-up to the match.
"He's a quiet lad in camp but when he gets on the training field and gets the ball in his hand as he looks pretty scary to me," said Ford.
"He's obviously massive, it's very quick, very sharp and wants the ball in his hands. He seems to know his stuff.
"We're excited to see him out there and we want him to get the ball in his hands as much as possible to let him show what he can do."
England head into the match on the back of a 16-15 defeat to New Zealand and Ford is determined to return to winning ways against Japan.
"We know that Japan want an unstructured game, they kick the ball more than any other side in the world," he added.
"We've got to be patient with it. They kick the ball that much that they have become very good at it - it is a very dangerous weapon for them.
"For us it's about controlling the structure of the game, playing at the right times, but also staying in the kicking battle."
Get Sky Sports Action to see England take on Japan. Find out more.
