England coach Stuart Lancaster says he expects the Vodafone Flying Fijians to be very good in the scrums and hence he has gone with a tried and tested line-up for the Rugby World Cup opener.
Lancaster has made only one change to his match day 23 from that, which Ireland, 21-13 in a warm-up match nine days ago.
Hooker Rob Webber replace Jamie George on a bench that includes rugby league convert Sam Burgess.
Lancaster says it is great to be naming an unchanged team, and they have identified that Fiji will be very good in the scrum and England wants Webber’s experience.
Chris Robshaw will lead the team for the 39th time and equal the total of England’s RWC 2003-winning captain Martin Johnson.
The England-Fiji match kicks off at 7am this Saturday and you can watch it live on FBC TV.
Team:
Joe Marler, Tom Youngs, Dan Cole, Geoff Parling, Courtney Lawes, Tom Wood, Chris Robshaw (capt), Ben Morgan, Ben Youngs, George Ford, Jonny May, Brad Barritt, Jonathan Joseph, Anthony Watson, Mike Brown.
Replacements-Rob Webber, Mako Vunipola, Kieran Brookes, Joe Launchbury, Billy Vunipola, Richard Wigglesworth, Owen Farrell, Sam Burgess
