Fin Smith confirmed as fly-half to face France

Men’s Six Nations: England v France

Date: Saturday, 8 February Kick-off: 16:45 GMT Venue: Allianz Stadium, Twickenham

Coverage: Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds and follow live text commentary and highlights on the BBC Sport website and app.

England have confirmed an audacious fly-half switch with Fin Smith starting at 10 and Marcus Smith shifted to full-back against France in the Six Nations on Saturday.

Fin Smith will make his first Test start after seven appearances off the bench.

His Northampton team-mate Ollie Sleightholme comes in for the injured Cadan Murley on the wing and brings the Saints contingent in the backline up to four with wing Tommy Freeman and scrum-half Alex Mitchell also starting.

Tom Willis is at number eight in the only other change to the starting XV, as Ben Earl moves to open-side flanker and Ben Curry drops to the bench.

Former captain Jamie George returns from injury and, along with the versatile Elliot Daly, is among the replacements.

Freddie Steward, who started at 15 in last weekend’s defeat by Ireland, drops out of the 23-strong matchday squad.

Fin Smith’s most-recent fly-half cameo came when he was introduced in the 64th minute in Dublin on Saturday.

England were 10 points adrift at the time but tries from Tom Curry and Tommy Freeman helped the visitors close the gap to a 27-22 final scoreline, ensuring a losing bonus point.

Marcus Smith prefers fly-half but has been used several times by head coach Borthwick as a full-back.

He was deployed at 15 in wins over Chile, Fiji and Argentina during the 2023 Rugby World Cup and played there for almost the entirety of England’s narrow 33-31 loss to France last season following a George Furbank injury.

Willis, whose brother Jack plays for Toulouse and is therefore ineligible for selection for England, has been rewarded for his fine Saracens form.

The 26-year-old will be making his first Test start after a couple of replacement appearances.

France named their team earlier on Thursday with fly-half Matthieu Jalibert and wing Damian Penaud coming into their starting XV.

England: M Smith; Freeman, Lawrence, Slade, Sleightholme; F Smith, Mitchell; Genge, Cowan-Dickie, Stuart, Itoje (c), Martin, T Curry, Earl, Willis

Replacements: George, Baxter, Heyes, Chessum, Cunningham-South, B Curry, Randall, Daly