Eddie Jones wants his England side to match Ireland’s physicality and emotion on Sunday as he makes four changes to his starting XV for the Round 3 encounter at Twickenham.
Manu Tuilagi, Ben Youngs, Joe Marler and Courtney Lawes are all recalled to the line-up, while Jonathan Joseph switches to the wing for his 50th England cap and Elliot Daly moves to full-back.
Youngs is a direct replacement at scrum-half for Willi Heinz, who drops to the bench, while Tuilagi’s return from injury at outside centre means Joseph will make his first international start on the wing and shifts Daly to full-back at the expense of the injured George Furbank – who drops out of the 23.
Mako Vunipola misses the match for family reasons, so Marler starts at loosehead prop, as Lawes is preferred to Lewis Ludlam at blindside flanker.
England have once again opted for a 6-2 spilt on the bench with Heinz and the returning Henry Slade as the only backs cover.
And after regaining the Calcutta Cup by beating Scotland in Round 2, Jones believes his side are ready to end Ireland’s 100 per cent record in this year’s Guinness Six Nations.
He said: “We’ve had a really good training week with Thursday probably our best session of the Guinness Six Nations.
“Ireland are a very good team, extremely well-coached. They are a team we respect a lot. They will bring their usual physicality and under Andy Farrell they’ve opened up their game a little bit.
“They are a tactically smart team. [Conor] Murray and [Johnny] Sexton, who have played 170 Tests between them, at nine and 10 will manage the game well. We’ve got to make sure we match their physicality and their emotion on the weekend.
“We trained at Twickenham Stadium in front of 10,000 fans last Friday and we can’t wait to get back out there in front of 80,000 people on Sunday.”
England starting XV 15 Elliot Daly (Saracens, 41 caps) 14 Jonny May (Leicester Tigers, 54 caps) 13 Manu Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers, 41 caps) 12 Owen Farrell (Saracens, 81 caps) (c) 11 Jonathan Joseph (Bath Rugby, 49 caps) 10 George Ford (Leicester Tigers, 67 caps) 9 Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers, 97 caps) 1 Joe Marler (Harlequins, 69 caps) 2 Jamie George (Saracens, 47 caps) 3 Kyle Sinckler (Harlequins, 33 caps) 4 Maro Itoje (Saracens, 36 caps) 5 George Kruis (Saracens, 43 caps) 6 Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints, 83 caps) 7 Sam Underhill (Bath Rugby, 17 caps) 8 Tom Curry (Sale Sharks, 21 caps)
Replacements 16 Luke Cowan-Dickie (Exeter Chiefs, 22 caps) 17 Ellis Genge (Leicester Tigers, 16 caps) 18 Will Stuart (Bath Rugby, 1 cap) 19 Joe Launchbury (Wasps, 63 caps) 20 Charlie Ewels (Bath Rugby, 13 caps) 21 Ben Earl (Saracens, 1 cap) 22 Willi Heinz (Gloucester Rugby, 11 caps) 23 Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs, 27 caps)
