England head coach Steve Borthwick has named his match-day 23 to face Fiji in their quarter-final at Stade de Marseille on Sunday, 15 October.  Marcus Smith, a specialist fly-half, starts in place of Freddie Steward at full-back with captain Owen Farrell moving to number 10 and George Ford dropping to the bench. Elliot Daly comes in on the left wing with Jonny May switching to the right flank, Joe Marchant reverting to outside centre and Manu Tuilagi to inside centre.

1 Ellis Genge
2 Jamie George
3 Dan Cole
4 Maro Itoje
5 Ollie Chessum
6 Courtney Lawes
7 Tom Curry
8 Ben Earl
9 Alex Mitchell
10 Owen Farrell (c)
11 Elliot Daly
12 Manu Tuilagi
13 Joe Marchant
14 Jonny May
15 Marcus Smith

Replacements:
16 Theo Dan
17 Joe Marler
18 Kyle Sinckler
19 George Martin
20 Billy Vunipola
21 Danny Care
22 George Ford
23 Ollie Lawrence

  • Head coach Steve Borthwick has made two personnel changes and four positional changes from the starting XV who narrowly beat Samoa in their last game, all in the backline.
  • Owen Farrell returns to fly-half for the sixth time this year – he has only started at inside centre twice in eight tests played in 2023, with one cap off the bench. This will be the first time he has started alongside Alex Mitchell at half-back, Farrell having worn the number 12 jersey last week.
  • Elliot Daly returns to the left-wing after playing at outside centre against Chile, with Jonny May switching to the right-wing for the third time this year – 19 of his past 24 tests since the start of 2020 have been on the left-wing.
  • Joe Marchant moves from right-wing to outside-centre and resumes his midfield partnership with Manu Tuilagi for the first time since round two against Japan.
  • Marcus Smith will start at full-back for only the second time in his test career, the first coming in England’s 71-0 victory against Chile in round three.
  • There are 10 survivors in the starting XV from England’s 30-22 loss to Fiji in August – Jonny May, Manu Tuilagi, Alex Mitchell, Ellis Genge, Dan Cole, Maro Itoje, Ollie Chessum, Ben Earl, Marcus Smith and Courtney Lawes.
  • Ben Earl has played the most minutes for England at RWC 2023 with 253 across four appearances. He leads the team for carries (37) and tackles (44) and is joint-third for defenders beaten (10) and line breaks (3).

  • England have won 64% of their test matches when Owen Farrell has started at fly-half, compared to 74% when he has started at inside-centre.