Henry Slade and Sam Underhill named in England starting line-up against Argentina
Written by News on 09/11/2017
Henry Slade will form part of an attacking England backline, while Sam Underhill will make his second senior international appearance after both were named in the team to face Argentina, live on Sky Sports Action on Saturday.
The versatile Exeter back will start at inside-centre and will partner Bath’s Jonathan Joseph in the midfield at Twickenham while Underhill, who will start at openside flanker, is one of seven players to retain their places from England’s last Test line-up, against Argentina, in June.
Jones has opted to rest both Owen Farrell and Maro Itoje from the side with fixtures against Australia and Samoa still to come in the autumn internationals.
Despite Farrell and Itoje’s absence there are starts for several of the British and Irish Lions squad members including Anthony Watson, Mako Vunipola and Courtney Lawes.
Elliot Daly will start for Eddie Jones’ side against the Pumas after making a quicker than expected recovery from a knee ligament injury which the Wasps player suffered playing against Northampton in October.
The Lions winger joined up with the squad on Sunday after missing out on the warm-weather training camp in Portugal as a replacement for Jonny May, who was forced out with a hamstring injury.
Jones said: "As a squad we have been preparing for this game since our first camp in August and are excited about playing in front of 82,000 fans at Twickenham Stadium on Saturday.
"This is our best 23 selected in what is our most important game this year. We know that Argentina is a strong team – Rugby World Cup semi-finalists in 2015 – and we will have to be smart and play well to beat them."
England: 15 Mike Brown, 14 Anthony Watson, 13 Jonathan Joseph, 12 Henry Slade, 11 Elliot Daly, 10 George Ford, 9 Ben Youngs; 1 Mako Vunipola, 2 Dylan Hartley (c), 3 Dan Cole, 4 Courtney Lawes, 5 George Kruis, 6 Chris Robshaw, 7 Sam Underhill, 8 Nathan Hughes
Replacements: 16 Jamie George, 17 Ellis Genge, 18 Harry Williams, 19 Joe Launchbury, 20 Sam Simmonds, 21 Danny Care, 22 Alex Lozowski, 23 Semesa Rokoduguni
(c) Sky News 2017: Henry Slade and Sam Underhill named in England starting line-up against Argentina
