England name unchanged match 23 for Australia
The players who defeated Samoa will line up against Wallabies
Owen Farrell and Billy Twelvetrees compete for inside centre role
England have named an unchanged match 23 for Saturday’s QBE International against Australia (2.30pm, live on Sky Sports HD).
The same squad that secured a first win of the autumn against Samoa will line up against the Wallabies at Twickenham Stadium for the final November Test.
Gloucester Rugby centre Billy Twelvetrees keeps his place and will compete with Saracens’ Owen Farrell for the inside centre slot, as explained by head coach Stuart Lancaster earlier today.
Brad Barritt looks likely to retain the outside centre berth after three successive starts this autumn, with rival Luther Burrell among the players released back to their clubs this evening.
Wasps James Haskell, who started the 28-9 win last Saturday at blindside flanker, is up against Tom Wood and Ben Morgan for a place in the back row after Exeter Chiefs’ No 8 Thomas Waldrom was also released back to his club side.
Lancaster said: “There has been some strong competition for places throughout the whole series and, with our strength in depth increasing in many positions and key players to return from injury soon, we will be in good shape for 2015.
“It was great to get the win last week and the whole 23 did well so we want to give those guys another chance against an Australian team who will want to finish their season on a high.
“We’ve had great support at Twickenham over the last three games and we are determined to give the fans something to shout about this weekend.”
Stuart Lancaster names his starting line-up to face Australia at 9:45am on Thursday morning. See an exclusive interview on who is in and why on England Rugby TV.
England squad to face Australia
Forwards (13)
Dave Attwood (Bath Rugby)
Kieran Brookes (Newcastle Falcons)
Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints)
James Haskell (Wasps)
George Kruis (Saracens)
Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints)
Joe Marler (Harlequins)
Ben Morgan (Gloucester Rugby)
Matt Mullan (Wasps)
Chris Robshaw (Harlequins, captain)
Rob Webber (Bath Rugby)
David Wilson (Bath Rugby)
Tom Wood (Northampton Saints)
Backs (10)
Brad Barritt (Saracens)
Mike Brown (Harlequins)
Owen Farrell (Saracens)
George Ford (Bath Rugby)
Jonny May (Gloucester Rugby)
Billy Twelvetrees (Gloucester Rugby)
Anthony Watson (Bath Rugby)
Richard Wigglesworth (Saracens)
Marland Yarde (Harlequins)
Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers)
Returning to Aviva Premiership clubs
Luther Burrell (Northampton Saints)
Calum Clark (Northampton Saints)
Lee Dickson (Northampton Saints)
Alex Goode (Saracens)
Graham Kitchener (Leicester Tigers)
Stephen Myler (Northampton Saints)
Jack Nowell (Exeter Chiefs)
Thomas Waldrom (Exeter Chiefs)
Danny Care (Harlequins), Kyle Eastmond and Semesa Rokoduguni (both Bath Rugby) were released back to their clubs on Monday evening to allow for appropriate training time ahead of Bath vs Quins on Friday evening.
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