England head coach Steve Borthwick has selected a new front row comprising Ellis Genge, Theo Dan and Will Stuart in his starting XV for the bronze final match against Argentina in Saint-Denis on Friday. Ollie Chessum joins Maro Itoje in the second row, flanker Sam Underhill earns a start, scrum-half Alex Mitchell drops out in favour of Ben Youngs, Henry Arundell (pictured) comes in on the left wing for Elliot Daly and Marcus Smith returns at full-back as Freddie Steward moves to the wing.

1 Ellis Genge
2 Theo Dan
3 Will Stuart
4 Maro Itoje
5 Ollie Chessum
6 Tom Curry
7 Sam Underhill
8 Ben Earl
9 Ben Youngs
10 Owen Farrell (c)
11 Henry Arundell
12 Manu Tuilagi
13 Joe Marchant
14 Freddie Steward
15 Marcus Smith

Replacements:
16 Jamie George
17 Bevan Rodd
18 Dan Cole
19 David Ribbans
20 Lewis Ludlam
21 Danny Care
22 George Ford
23 Ollie Lawrence

  • England head coach Steve Borthwick has made five changes to his forward pack and three in the backs to his starting XV following last weekend’s semi-final loss against South Africa.
  • Prop Will Stuart earns his first RWC start after playing three games off the bench.
  • Back-row Sam Underhill will play his first test for England since the second test against Australia in Brisbane on their 2022 tour. This will be his first RWC game since the 2019 final in Yokohama. 
  • Fellow flanker Tom Curry will earn his 50th test cap for England. He has started in 48 of his 49 career tests, earning just one cap off the bench against Georgia in 2020.
  • Ben Youngs earns his first start at RWC 2023 after playing 53 minutes in total off the bench across two appearances. This will be the first time since the 2021 Six Nations against Scotland that England have started Youngs and Owen Farrell alongside each other in the halves.
  • Number eight Ben Earl has played the most minutes of any England player at RWC 2023 with 413. He has beaten the third-most defenders of any forward (20) behind Argentina prop Thomas Gallo (21) and New Zealand’s Ardie Savea (23) and has made the third-most tackles of any player at RWC 2023 with 66.
  • After scoring five tries in his only RWC appearance so far, wing Henry Arundell will look to surpass Chris Ashton’s England record of six tries scored in 2011.