Will Joseph and Max Ojomoh given chance to shine in radical England revamp for Japan
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Will Joseph and Max Ojomoh have been given opportunities to impress in a much-changed starting side for an injury-hit England against Japan.
Joseph will start on the wing and earn his first cap since the 2022 tour of Australia, while Ojomoh returns at inside centre for the first time since a player-of-the-match performance against Argentina last November.
Henry Pollock earns just a second international start at No 8 after an eye-catching outing on the wing from the bench in the 45-22 success against Australia.
George Ford starts ahead of Fin Smith at fly half, with Freddie Steward at full-back, Cadan Murley on the left wing and Jack van Poortvliet and Henry Slade the only backline starters retained from the Wallabies win.
Among the replacements, scrum half Archie McParland is in line for a debut, while Emmanuel Iyogun, Arthur Clark and Greg Fisilau will win their second caps.
Steve Borthwick’s squad had been hit by injuries to Ollie Chessum (shoulder), Seb Atkinson (hip), George Furbank (groin) and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, with the hope that the former trio can feature against New Zealand next week. Feyi-Waboso has been ruled out of the remainder of the Nations Championship with an ankle issue.
“Japan are a very well-coached side who will challenge us in different ways, and we know we’ll need to bring intensity throughout the game,” Borthwick said.
“We’re all delighted for Archie. He’s had some bad luck with injury, so it’s especially pleasing to be able to name him in an England matchday 23 for the first time. He’s an outstanding young talent who has worked hard to get to this point, and we’re really looking forward to being back on Saturday.”
Fin Smith is understood to have trained fully this week but drops out of the matchday 23 entirely, perhaps with one eye on New Zealand next weekend. Marcus Smith again provides fly half cover as one of two backs on the bench.
Alex Coles moves to the blindside with Chessum absent having scrummaged on the flank against Australia, and Asher Opoku-Fordjour is given a rare outing on the tighthead.
In all, just five starters retain their spots, with Coles and Ben Earl among them but having moved positions.
Japan, meanwhile, stick with a settled selection with Eddie Jones naming an unchanged forward pack from the defeat to Wales.
Riku Tokito is brought in on the wing for the injured Inoke Burua and will make his debut. The former Japan sevens international is yet to play a professional 15-a-side game, though Jones is confident he can handle an anticipated aerial bombardment from England.
“It’s a big week for Japanese rugby,” Jones said. “We realise England are a nation we’ve never been able to beat. Everyone knows the record and we want to do something a bit different this week and we’ve trained like that, so I’m really pleased with the team.”
England XV: 1 Ellis Genge, 2 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 3 Asher Opoku-Fordjour; 4 Maro Itoje (capt.), 5 George Martin; 6 Alex Coles, 7 Ben Earl, 8 Henry Pollock; 9 Jack van Poortvliet, 10 George Ford; 11 Cadan Murley, 12 Max Ojomoh, 13 Henry Slade, 14 Will Joseph; 15 Freddie Steward.
Replacements: 16 Theo Dan, 17 Emmanuel Iyogun, 18 Joe Heyes, 19 Arthur Clark, 20 Ben Curry, 21 Greg Fisilau; 22 Archie McParland, 23 Marcus Smith.
Japan XV: 1 Yota Kamimori, 2 Mamoru Harada, 3 Shuhei Takeuchi; 4 Harry Hockings, 5 Warner Dearns (co-capt.); 6 Ben Gunter, 7 Kanji Shimokawa, 8 Jack Cornelsen; 9 Naoto Saito (co-capt.), 10 Riku Kitahara; 11 Riku Tokito, 12 Samisoni Tua, 13 Dylan Riley, 14 Kippei Ishida; 15 Kazuma Ueda.
Replacements: 16 Kenji Sato, 17 Sojiro Otsuka, 18 Opeti Helu, 19 Michael Stolberg, 20 Tiennan Costley; 21 Shinobu Fujiwara, 22 Shinya Komura, 23 Jisu Lee.
