England men’s head coach Eddie Jones has named his side to play South Africa in the first Test of the Quilter Internationals at Twickenham Stadium (KO 3pm, live on Sky Sports HD).
 
Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints) and Owen Farrell (Saracens) are named as co-captains in a starting XV which includes 413 caps.
 
Alec Hepburn (Exeter Chiefs) will make his starting debut for England while uncapped players Zach Mercer (Bath Rugby) and Ben Moon (Exeter Chiefs) are named as finishers.
 
George Kruis (Saracens), Jack Nowell (Exeter Chiefs) and Ben Te’o (Worcester Warriors) are included for the first time since last season’s Six Nations.

Manu Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers) is named as a finisher having last played for England against Wales in the 2016 Six Nations.

“We’ve become very well organised in our set piece and have done a lot of good work in Portugal over the last week," said Jones. "We have put in a new defence system and our attack looks more organised than it was on the South Africa tour.”
 
On taking on South Africa Jones said: “Against South Africa you have got the physical battle up front and then you have to be tactically smart in how you attack against them. We need to find ways to gain momentum, then once we find momentum, convert that to points.
 
“We are really excited to be back at Twickenham Stadium. It’s been a long time and we can’t wait to play in front of 82,000 fans.”
 
England starting XV

15 Elliot Daly (Wasps, 21 caps), 14 Jack Nowell (Exeter Chiefs, 26 caps), 13 Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs, 13 caps), 12 Ben Te’o (Worcester Warriors, 13 caps), 11 Jonny May (Leicester Tigers, 37 caps), 10 Owen Farrell (Saracens, 61 caps) co-captain, 9 Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers, 77 caps), 1 Alec Hepburn (Exeter Chiefs, 2 caps), 2 Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints, 93 caps) co-captain, 3 Kyle Sinckler (Harlequins, 13 caps), 4 Maro Itoje (Saracens, 22 caps), 5 George Kruis (Saracens, 25 caps), 6 Brad Shields (Wasps, 2 caps), 7 Tom Curry (Sale Sharks, 4 caps), 8 Mark Wilson (Newcastle Falcons, 4 caps).
 
Finishers
16 Jamie George (Saracens, 28 caps), 17 Ben Moon (Exeter Chiefs, uncapped), 18 Harry Williams (Exeter Chiefs, 11 caps), 19 Charlie Ewels (Bath Rugby, 6 caps) , 20 Zach Mercer (Bath Rugby, uncapped), 21 Danny Care (Harlequins, 81 caps), 22 George Ford (Leicester Tigers, 47 caps), 23 Manu Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers, 26 caps).

Astonished Te'o starts. And there's no wide cover on the bench. If one of the back 3 go down, it's going to start looking odd.

This team is bizzare. A real head scratcher!

Pretty confident is saying that Quins have 2 English players who would perform better in any back row position than the starters named.

But then only a complete fool would pick Clifford, a guy who has been long-term injured and has no playing time whatsoever...

The Springbok team to face against England in London (in order of name, surname, province, Test caps, Test points):

15. Damian Willemse (DHL Western Province, 3, 0)
14. Sbu Nkosi (Cell C Sharks, 3, 10 - 2t)
13. Jesse Kriel (Vodacom Blue Bulls, 36, 50 - 10t)
12. Damian de Allende (DHL Western Province, 33, 20 - 4t)
11. Aphiwe Dyantyi (Xerox Golden Lions, 9, 30 - 6t)
10. Handré Pollard (Vodacom Blue Bulls, 35, 293 - 3t, 55c, 53p, 3d)
9. Ivan van Zyl (Vodacom Blue Bulls, 3, 0)
8. Warren Whiteley (Xerox Golden Lions , 21, 15 - 3t)
7. Duane Vermeulen (Kubota Spears, Japan, 42, 15 - 3t)
6. Siya Kolisi (captain, DHL Western Province, 37, 25 - 5t)
5. Pieter-Steph du Toit (DHL Western Province, 42, 20 - 4t)
4. Eben Etzebeth (DHL Western Province, 73, 15 - 3t)
3. Frans Malherbe (DHL Western Province, 25, 0)
2. Malcolm Marx (Xerox Golden Lions, 20, 20 - 4t)
1. Steven Kitshoff (DHL Western Province, 33, 5 - 1t)

Replacements:
16. Bongi Mbonambi (DHL Western Province, 10 - 2t)
17. Thomas du Toit (Cell C Sharks, 5, 0)
18. Wilco Louw (DHL Western Province, 11, 0)
19. RG Snyman (Vodacom Blue Bulls, 8, 0)
20. Lood de Jager (Vodacom Blue Bulls, 36, 20 - 4t)
21. Embrose Papier (Vodacom Blue Bulls, 4, 0)
22. Elton Jantjies (Xerox Golden Lions, 29, 223 - 2t, 42c, 43p)
23. André Esterhuizen (Cell C Sharks, 5, 0)

Boks by about 30 looking at the 2 teams! They are going to absolutely monster us up front and they aren't mugs in the backs.
Eddie has selected a strange team, in bit sure what he is trying to do with English rugby at the moment.

How does the "new defensive system" reflect on PG?

In no way at all -- there's a new bloke doing it - and we defended like drains for the last year.

Guess we'll never know if it was Gustard or the team -- certainly Quins defence is 1000 times better already and improving all the time.

And the team gets weaker still with Tuilagi out and Ashton in, I was looking forward to Tuilagi running hard as a finisher, but Ashton will not help a team going backwards all the time