Women's Six Nations: England's Emily Scarratt and Sarah Hunter back for Red Roses' opener vs Scotland

England's Emily Scarratt returns to start in the Six Nations following her recovery form a leg break

England duo Emily Scarratt and Sarah Hunter have been named to start for the Red Roses' opening Women's Six Nations game against Scotland in Edinburgh on Saturday.

Hunter captains the side from No 8, while Scarratt returns to the starting XV at outside-centre following a lengthy injury lay-off due to a leg break.

Marlie Packer is set to earn her 80th cap at openside flanker, while Saracens team-mate Poppy Cleall - named 2021's six Nations Player of the Tournament - is at blindside flanker.

England head into the tournament as favourites, having claimed the title in 2019, 2020 and 2021, and they are also on an 18-game winning run.

Sarah Hunter captains the side from No 8 vs Scotland in Round 1

Maud Muir earns her first cap at loosehead prop with Lark Davies (hooker) and Sarah Bern (tighthead prop) forming the front row.

Harlequins' Rosie Galligan makes her first Red Roses appearance in over three years and earns her second cap at lock.

Bristol Bears duo Abbie Ward and Leanne Infante are at lock and scrum-half respectively.

Helena Rowland and Holly Aitchison make up the 10-12 axis while Ellie Kildunne, Heather Cowell and Abby Dow are the back three.

Bryony Cleall returns to the group after missing the autumn internationals through injury. She takes her place on the bench alongside uncapped Emma Sing who is in line for her senior debut.

"We're really looking forward to this weekend's opening game. We've had a good start to the week training at Bisham Abbey and are excited to be in Edinburgh to fine-tune our preparations.

"We've named a strong side and are looking forward to seeing how the group fare. We have great strength-in-depth, the whole squad have trained well and it's important we give players opportunities and at the same time look at a couple of new combinations.

England Women's head coach Simon Middleton says his side have clear objectives heading into the championship

"We go into this year's Six Nations with some clear objectives in terms of the improvements we are looking for in our performances. The players are crystal clear in terms of how we want to play and what we want our game to look like.

"They have trained exceptionally hard and every session we have improved our accuracy and execution. What we now need to find out is which players can put the best version of our game on the field come the big occasion.

"Playing Scotland in Scotland is one such occasion, we're excited to take to the field at the DAM Health Stadium this Saturday."

England: 15 Ellie Kildunne, 14 Heather Cowell, 13 Emily Scarratt, 12 Holly Aitchison, 11 Abby Dow, 10 Helena Rowland, 9 Leanne Infante; 1 Maud Muir, 2 Lark Davies, 3 Sarah Bern, 4 Rosie Galligan, 5 Abbie Ward, 6 Poppy Cleall, 7 Marlie Packer, 8 Sarah Hunter (c)

Replacements: 16 Connie Powell, 17 Vickii Cornborough, 18 Bryony Cleall, 19 Sarah Beckett, 20 Alex Matthews, 21 Lucy Packer, 22 Amber Reed, 23 Emma Sing.