Five Leicester Tigers players have been named in the England squad for Saturday’s Rugby World Cup Final against South Africa.
England head coach Eddie Jones names an unchanged team from the semi-final victory over New Zealand, with Tigers colleagues Ben Youngs, George Ford, Manu Tuilagi and Jonny May in the backline and prop Dan Cole among the replacements.
The only change in the matchday 23 is the inclusion of scrum-half Ben Spencer on the bench after flying out earlier this week to replace the injured Willi Heinz.
Jones said: “It has been a good week, the players have been together a while now so it’s less about the volume of training this week, it’s more about sharpening the sword.
“South Africa are a difficult opponent and we are going to have to fight really hard to win.
“We know the physical part of the game is going to be important and the players will go into this game well prepared knowing how we want to play. We will go and play with no fear."
England have remained unbeaten during the tournament having with wins in the pool against Tonga (35-3), USA (45-7) and Argentina (39-10) before the France game was cancelled due to typhoon Hagibis.
Australia were beaten 44-16 in the quarter-final in Oita before England defeated New Zealand 19-7 in Yokohama last weekend to progress to the final.
Jones will be in charge of England for the 50th time this weekend and is only the third England coach to reach this milestone. He has the best win rate (80 per cent) of any head coach of England.
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England (v South Africa, Rugby World Cup Final, Yokohama Stadium, Saturday 6.00pm Japan / 9.00am UK, live on ITV).
15 Elliot Daly (Saracens, 38 caps)
14 Anthony Watson (Bath Rugby, 41 caps)
13 Manu Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers, 39 caps)
12 Owen Farrell (Saracens, 78 caps) (c)
11 Jonny May (Leicester Tigers, 51 caps)
10 George Ford (Leicester Tigers, 64 caps)
9 Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers, 94 caps)
1 Mako Vunipola (Saracens, 57 caps)
2 Jamie George (Saracens, 44 caps)
3 Kyle Sinckler (Harlequins, 30 caps)
4 Maro Itoje (Saracens, 33 caps)
5 Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints, 80 caps)
6 Tom Curry (Sale Sharks, 18 caps)
7 Sam Underhill (Bath Rugby, 14 caps)
8 Billy Vunipola (Saracens, 50 caps)
Replacements
16 Luke Cowan-Dickie (Exeter Chiefs, 20 caps)
17 Joe Marler (Harlequins, 67 caps)
18 Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers, 94 caps)
19 George Kruis (Saracens, 40 caps)
20 Mark Wilson (Sale Sharks/ Newcastle Falcons 17 caps)
21 Ben Spencer (Saracens, 3 caps)
22 Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs, 26 caps)
23 Jonathan Joseph (Bath Rugby, 46 caps)
South Africa: 15 Willie Le Roux, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 13 Lukhanyo Am, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Faf de Klerk; 1 Tendai Mtawarira, 2 Mbongeni Mbonambi, 3 Frans Malherbe, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 5 Lood de Jager, 6 Siya Kolisi (c), 7 Pieter-Steph Du Toit, 8 Duane Vermeulen
Replacements: 16 Malcolm Marx, 17 Steven Kitshoff, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 RG Snyman, 20 Franco Mostert, 21 Francois Louw, 22 Herschel Jantjies, 23 Frans Steyn
