George Ford is set to make his first Test start after being selected at five-eighth in a revamped England side to play Samoa at Twickenham on Saturday.
Ford, all of whose four previous Test appearances have come as a replacement, now finds himself in the No.10 shirt with regular five-eighth Owen Farrell moved across to inside centre by England coach Stuart Lancaster despite unimpressive showings in this month’s defeats by world champions New Zealand and South Africa.
Farrell played the first two matches of his England career, in 2012, at inside centre when he was also alongside Brad Barritt, who is again set to be his midfield partner against Samoa this weekend.
Longtime friends Farrell and Ford played youth rugby together and helped England under-20s reach the final of the 2011 Junior World Championship.
“It’s great to give George a start in this series after he missed the summer tour through injury,” Lancaster said in a statement on Wednesday.
“George has been impressive in camp and is now fully up to speed with the game plan and is ready to run the game.
“Owen switches to 12 and I’m sure will support George well.”
In all, Lancaster has made six changes, including Farrell’s positional switch, to the side beaten 31-28 by the Springboks last weekend as 2015 World Cup hosts England look to end a run of five straight defeats.
In the backs, Ben Youngs comes in at halfback following Danny Care’s mediocre form in the first two Tests of a November campaign which England finish with next week’s clash against 2015 pool rivals Australia.
With Kyle Eastmond ruled out with concussion, Farrell has been moved to inside centre leaving specialist midfielder Billy Twelvetrees on the bench.
Up front, England captain Chris Robshaw is the only surviving member of a back-row where Ben Morgan has been promoted from the bench in place of Billy Vunipola at No.8 and James Haskell starts at blindside flanker instead of Tom Wood.
There is one change too in the front row, with Rob Webber coming off the bench as the run-on hooker and Dylan Hartley demoted to the bench after receiving a needless yellow card against the Springboks.
England (15-1)
Mike Brown; Anthony Watson, Brad Barritt, Owen Farrell Jonny May; George Ford, Ben Youngs; Ben Morgan, Chris Robshaw (capt), James Haskell; Courtney Lawes, Dave Attwood; David Wilson, Rob Webber, Joe Marler. Res: Dylan Hartley, Matt Mullan, Kieran Brookes, George Kruis, Tom Wood, Richard Wigglesworth, Billy Twelvetrees, Marland Yarde.
