Captain Courtney Lawes and Manu Tuilagi return to England starting line up

Courtney Lawes and Manu Tuilagi return to England starting XV for the visit of Wales for Saturday’s crunch match with Wales.

A midfield combination of Marcus Smith, Manu Tuilagi and Henry Slade has England fans licking their lips.

Head Coach Eddie Jones: “Marcus has slight of hand, quick feet, the ability to beat people one on one in space. Sladey has an educated left foot and the ability to make breaks and the power of Manu. Manu gives us a different way to carry in the backs.

“When he is not there, we don’t have that big back to play off. It’s handy to have that big back to create space.”

In the front row, hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie starts in place of Jamie George, while prop Kyle Sinckler pushes Will Stuart to the bench to make his 50th England appearance.

Lawes has not played since mid-January because of a concussion, but has been declared both fit to start and regain the captaincy he had against South Africa in the autumn, with flanker Tom Curry standing down from the role.

Eddie Jones said: “Courtney was going to be captain when Owen was unavailable. He has good skills around the player. When he speaks people listen and he leads by example.”

On Curry’s international captaincy debut, Jones outlined that he was really happy with his first two games as captain.

Besides captaincy, Jones said: “Courtney is a great ball carrier.”

With Northampton team-mate Dan Biggar leading Wales, it is the first time in history the captains in an England against Wales fixture have both come from the same club.

Youngs is set to surpass Jason Leonard’s record of 114 caps for England’s men if he takes to the field at Twickenham.

Eddie Jones said: “We’ve got Ben Youngs to finish the game. These games always tend to go to the wire. Imagine having a guy come on with 115 caps in that situation.”

Harry Randall starts the game as England look to get off to a flying start.

“Each week, Harry has been in increasingly better form,” said Jones.

“We want to put some pace in the game early. There will be opportunities early in the game.”

England lost their opening game against Scotland before a bonus-point win in Italy, meaning they realistically need victory against Wales to keep alive their title hopes.

Last year’s winners Wales – who have recalled wing Josh Adams and number eight Taulupe Faletau for the game – have also won one and lost one of their fixtures so far.

England team to face Wales: Steward; Malins, Slade, Tuilagi, Nowell; Smith, Randall; Genge, Cowan-Dickie, Sinckler, Ewels, Itoje, Lawes (Capt), Curry, Dombrandt.

Replacements: George, Marler, Stuart, Isiekwe, Simmonds, Youngs, Ford, Daly.

Wales team to face England: Liam Williams; Alex Cuthbert; Owen Watkin; Nick Tompkins; Josh Adams; Dan Biggar (capt); Tomos Williams; Wyn Jones; Ryan Elias; Tomas Francis; Will Rowlands; Adam Beard; Ross Moriarty; Taine Basham; Taulupe Faletau.

Replacements: Lake, G Thomas, Brown, S Davies, Morgan, Hardy, Anscombe, J Davies.