[Source: Reuters]

England coach Steve Borthwick has kept the same backline for Sunday’s World Cup clash with Japan but brought in Lewis Ludlum to replace suspended flanker Tom Curry and changed both props as Kyle Sinckler and Joe Marler start.

Borthwick was never likely to make radical changes from the team who did so well to beat Argentina 27-10 in their opener while playing with 14 men for 77 minutes, especially for a potentially tricky fixture against Japan, where victory would all but secure their place in the quarter-finals.

Tough-tackling Ludlam looked a bundle of energy as he somehow squeezed in 12 tackles in his 15 minutes off the bench on Saturday and comes in at number eight.

Ben Earl moves to the openside flank in place of Curry, who is banned for this game and the next against Chile after his red card on Saturday.

In the team named on Friday, Billy Vunipola, the only specialist number eight in the World Cup squad and free to play having served a two-match ban, is among the replacements, where Ben Youngs replaces Danny Care as scrumhalf cover for Alex Mitchell.

Sinckler has recovered from a chest injury to take over at tighthead while Marler, given a huge roar of welcome by the England fans in Marseille, makes only his second start since the 2020 Six Nations having slipped out of favour under Eddie Jones.

England captain Courtney Lawes said he was looking forward to lining up with Ludlam – his club captain at Northampton.

“He’s a great player, it’s been a while since we started together,” he said. “He takes on board everything the coaches tell him. He gets out there and he just works himself to the bone and that’s the kind of player you need.

“It’s great to see him come through from the academy to starting England player at his second World Cup.”

Lawes had a simple response to questions about how England can improve their discipline after four red cards in six games, saying: “Don’t hit their head is all you can really do.”

Borthwick came as close as he ever has to uttering some criticism, though in his own, very roundabout way, when asked if he felt there had been inconsistencies when dealing with head contact.

“I’ve noted that there is a large amount of commentary from different sources about what appears to be a lack of consistency and a lack of transparency from the decision-making process. Now it’s obviously not my role to comment upon that – that’s World Rugby,” he said.

“I also note that there was a tremendous amount of comment from World Rugby about Owen Farrell over a couple of weeks during our preparation for this tournament, a situation that went on and on. There were lots of comments from World Rugby.

“I note there haven’t been very many comments from World Rugby, as I’m told, in the last week or so. As I said I’ll leave that to World Rugby.”

Sunday’s game will be the fourth full-cap international between the teams, England having won the previous three handsomely, including a 52-13 Twickenham thrashing last November when Japan’s scrum was found badly wanting.

While England got into the mood with their Argentina win, Japan had to work hard for their 42-12 victory against spirited tournament debutants Chile.

That was their seventh successive pool win, after they won all four on home soil in 2019 before losing to South Africa in the quarter-finals.

Their form since then has been poor – they have not beaten a tier one side and lost to Samoa, Fiji and Italy in their warm-ups for the tournament in France.

Nevertheless, nobody in the sport will ever forget their stunning wins over South Africa in 2015 and Ireland and Scotland four years ago and England will show them maximum respect.

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