England name unchanged XV to face Australia

Autumn Nations Series: England v Australia

Venue: Allianz Stadium, Twickenham Date: Saturday, 9 November Kick-off: 15:10 GMT

Coverage: Listen to live commentary on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra and BBC Sounds, follow live text commentary on the BBC Sport website and app.

England have named an unchanged starting XV to face Australia in the Autumn Nations Series at Allianz Stadium on Saturday.

Marcus Smith retains his place at fly-half after impressing in the narrow defeat by New Zealand, while Jamie George continues to lead the side at hooker.

There is a positional swap in the centre partnership, with Henry Slade moving to inside centre and Ollie Lawrence wearing the 13 shirt.

The bench is also reshuffled as hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie replaces Theo Dan, while head coach Steve Borthwick has opted for another back as wing Ollie Sleightholme comes in for flanker Ben Curry.

Cowan-Dickie will make his first England appearance since November 2022 if he is introduced off the bench.

England will be looking to end a run of three defeats when they face the Wallabies after surrendering an eight-point lead late on against the All Blacks.

“Facing Australia is always a massive challenge, and we’ll work diligently this week to ensure we’re physically and tactically prepared to take on the Wallabies,” said Borthwick.

“The passion and energy from the crowd at Allianz Stadium last weekend was absolutely brilliant, from the opening whistle to the final moments, and we can’t wait to be back at home this Saturday.”

England have won 10 of their last 11 meetings with Australia since their tournament-ending defeat in the 2015 World Cup at Twickenham.

The Wallabies, meanwhile, have lost their last three matches under head coach Joe Schmidt.

England: Furbank; Feyi-Waboso, Lawrence, Slade, Freeman; M Smith, Spencer; Genge, George (capt), Stuart, Itoje, Martin, Cunningham-South, T Curry, Earl.

Replacements: Cowan-Dickie, Baxter, Cole, Isiekwe, Dombrandt, Randall, Ford, Sleightholme.

Full-back George Furbank says England were disappointed at the missed opportunity of a first home win over the All Blacks since 2012 but are now solely focused on facing the Wallabies.

“We wanted to win all four of these autumn games,” Furbank told BBC Radio 5 Live.

“We put ourselves in a great position to win the first one but didn’t, so now the focus is on the next one.

“It is now about creating a new energy and a new drive against a fresh opposition. Australia play differently to New Zealand so it will be a different challenge.

“I don’t think we are going to change our gameplan too much. We are starting to create a DNA in the way we want to play in attack and defence.

“Australia are definitely building as a side, like we are, and I have never played Australia before so I’m quite excited about that.”