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| Venue: Stade de Nice Date: Sunday 17 September Kick-off: 20:00 BST |
| Coverage: Listen to live commentary on BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sounds and online; follow text commentary on the BBC Sport website and app. |
Lewis Ludlam has been rewarded for his energetic cameo in last weekend’s win over Argentina with a starting spot in England’s meeting with Japan in Nice.
The 27-year-old, who made 11 tackles after coming on in the 66th minute against the Pumas, replaces the suspended Tom Curry in the back row.
Kyle Sinckler and Joe Marler come into the front row in the other two changes to Steve Borthwick’s starting line-up.
Ellis Genge drops to the bench, while Dan Cole is out of the squad entirely.
Billy Vunipola, the sole specialist number eight in England’s squad, has served a two-match ban following his red card for a high hit on Andrew Porter in the warm-up match defeat by Ireland.
However, Borthwick has opted for Ludlam, who started all five of England’s Six Nations games at blind-side flanker earlier this season, at number eight, with Ben Earl shifting to open-side flanker. Captain Courtney Lawes completes the back row.
Vunipola is named on the bench alongside Ben Youngs, who is preferred to Danny Care as back-up to starting scrum-half Alex Mitchell.
England: Steward; May, Marchant, Tuilagi, Daly; Ford, Mitchell; Marler, George, Sinckler, Itoje, Chessum, Lawes (capt), Earl, Ludlam.
Replacements: Dan, Genge, Stuart, Martin, Vunipola, Youngs, Smith, Lawrence.
England captain Owen Farrell will watch from the stands once more as he serves the fourth and final match of a suspension imposed by World Rugby following his own dismissal against Wales in August.
In Farrell’s absence, George Ford, whose last England Test start before this tournament was in March 2021, gets another chance to stake his claim to the fly-half role after an impressive performance in the win over Argentina.
“After another good week’s preparation in Le Touquet, we are looking forward to the challenge of playing a Japan side that will be full of confidence following their comprehensive win over Chile in their opening fixture of the competition,” said Borthwick.
Japan reached the last eight as hosts of the last Rugby World Cup, chalking up wins over Ireland and Scotland en route, however their progress has since stalled.
They have not beaten a Six Nations or Rugby Championship side in the intervening four years and suffered warm-up defeats by Samoa, Fiji and Italy in their build-up to France 2023.
They briefly trailed Chile before recovering to claim a 42-12 victory in their Pool D opener.
Coach Jamie Joseph has brought in three veterans of Japan’s 2019 campaign for the meeting with England – hooker Shota Horie, flanker Pieter Labuschagne and captain and number eight Kazuki Himeno – with centre Tomoki Osada the other change to the starting line-up.
Japan: Masirewa; Matsushima, Osada, Nakamura, Naikabula; Matsuda, Nagare; Inagaki, Horie, Gu, Cornelsen, Fakatava, Leitch, Labuschagne, Himeno (c)
Replacements: Sakate, Millar, Ai Valu, Dearns, Shimokawa, Saito, Riley, Lemeki.
England’s Pool D fixtures
Saturday, 9 September: England 27-10 Argentina
Sunday, 17 September: England v Japan (Stade de Nice), 20:00
Saturday, 23 September: England v Chile (Stade Pierre-Mauroy, Lille), 16:45
Saturday 7 October: England v Samoa (Stade Pierre-Mauroy, Lille), 16:45