Owen Farrell will step in at fly-half to replace the injured Toby Flood on Saturday in England’s only change to the starting XV for their final autumn Test, against New Zealand at Twickenham.
The 21-year-old, who started all five of England’s RBS 6 Nations games this season, will start for the first time since the summer tour after Flood injured his toe in their 16-15 defeat to South Africa.
Stuart Lancaster has resisted the urge to wield the axe with only two changes on the bench as lock Courtney Lawes returns for the first time since February and fly-half Freddie Burns gets his first call-up following his fine form for Gloucester.
Northampton Saints’ Lawes replaces Mouritz Botha in the match-day squad after recovering from a knee injury and last played for England against Wales in the RBS 6 Nations.
Burns is the current top points scorer in the Premiership and has earned plenty of plaudits for his creative attacking style and moves into Farrell’s place on the bench.
The All Blacks are unbeaten in 20 Tests since the start of their World Cup-winning campaign in September and have not lost in their last five visits to Twickenham.
And following England’s frustratingly close defeats to Australia and South Africa, head coach Lancaster wants his side to end their autumn on a high.
“We asked for a big response from the players after Australia and we got one last Saturday against South Africa, although ultimately we were denied,” said Lancaster.
“That frustration has been channelled this week and the whole squad has reacted with a determination to get a victory against the top team in the world.”
ENGLAND:
15. Alex Goode 14. Chris Ashton 13. Manu Tuilagi 12. Brad Barritt 11. Mike Brown 10. Owen Farrell 9. Ben Youngs 1. Alex Corbisiero 2. Tom Youngs 3. Dan Cole 4. Joe Launchbury 5. Geoff Parling 6. Tom Wood 7. Chris Robshaw 8. Ben Morgan
Replacements: 16. David Paice 17. David Wilson 18. Mako Vunipola 19. Courtney Lawes 20. James Haskell 21. Danny Care 22. Freddie Burns 23. Jonathan Joseph
