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Heinz and Ludlam among five England changes for Calcutta Cup

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Willi Heinz and Lewis Ludlam will make their first Guinness Six Nations starts as England look to regain the Calcutta Cup against Scotland at BT Murrayfield this weekend.

Willi Heinz and Lewis Ludlam will make their first Guinness Six Nations starts as England look to regain the Calcutta Cup against Scotland at BT Murrayfield this weekend.

Coach Eddie Jones has made five changes to the starting XV that lost 24-17 to France in Round 1, including Heinz getting the nod at scrum-half ahead of Ben Youngs and Ludlam replacing Courtney Lawes in the back row.

Both Lawes and Youngs are among the replacements – where there is a 6-2 split among forwards and backs – but Joe Marler drops out of the 23 entirely, with Mako Vunipola having recovered from an eye injury to start at loosehead prop.

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The other two changes see George Kruis starting in the second row alongside Maro Itoje, with Charlie Ewels not included in the matchday squad, and Jonathan Joseph replacing the injured Manu Tuilagi in the centres.

George Furbank, who made his international debut last week, starts at full-back once more, while hooker Tom Dunn could win his first cap off the bench after Luke Cowan-Dickie left camp to be with his partner, who has gone into labour, and the uncapped Ben Earl is also among the replacements.

The Calcutta Cup clash in last year’s Guinness Six Nations ended in a dramatic 38-38 draw at Twickenham and Jones is well aware of the threat that Scotland – who also lost in Round 1, going down to Ireland in Dublin – pose.

He said: “Preparation this week has been great. We have sought to address the issues from the France game and have had a really good and sharp preparation for Scotland.

“Scotland are a dangerous side. They like to play with a lot of width and with a lot of flow and tempo in their game. We want to make sure we dominate the gain line.

“Their win record against England at Murrayfield is substantially higher than their overall record against us, so we have to recognise they are a dangerous beast and we have to be at our best to beat them.”

England starting XV 15 George Furbank (Northampton Saints, 1 cap) 14 Jonny May (Leicester Tigers, 53 caps) 13 Jonathan Joseph (Bath Rugby, 48 caps) 12 Owen Farrell (Saracens, 80 caps) CAPTAIN 11 Elliot Daly (Saracens, 40 caps) 10 George Ford (Leicester Tigers, 66 caps) 9 Willi Heinz (Gloucester Rugby, 10 caps) 1 Mako Vunipola (Saracens, 58 caps) 2 Jamie George (Saracens, 46 caps) 3 Kyle Sinckler (Harlequins, 32 caps) 4 Maro Itoje (Saracens, 35 caps) 5 George Kruis (Saracens, 42 caps) 6 Lewis Ludlam (Northampton Saints, 7 caps) 7 Sam Underhill (Bath Rugby, 16 caps) 8 Tom Curry (Sale Sharks, 20 caps)

Replacements 16 Tom Dunn (Bath Rugby, uncapped) 17 Ellis Genge (Leicester Tigers, 15 caps) 18 Will Stuart (Bath Rugby, 1 cap) 19 Joe Launchbury (Wasps, 62 caps) 20 Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints, 82 caps) 21 Ben Earl (Saracens, uncapped) 22 Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers, 96 caps) 23 Ollie Devoto (Exeter Chiefs, 2 caps)

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