Courtney Lawes will make his 50th test appearance for England in Saturday’s autumn opener with South Africa, the second row one of three Saints in the starting XV at Twickenham.
Tom Wood also returns to a side led by Dylan Hartley as England look to continue an outstanding run of results in 2016 that has seen them go unbeaten thus far.
There are plenty of records to be broken at Twickenham, too, not least a 10-year winless run against the Springboks. Victory would also keep alive the Red Rose’s chances of being the first side to end a calendar year undefeated since way back in 1992.
Head coach Jones congratulated Lawes on the landmark and also highlighted the challenge facing his side.
“We congratulate Courtney Lawes on his 50-cap milestone – an excellent achievement,” he commented.
“We’re looking forward to the game. Test matches are always about the contest up front and South Africa pride themselves in the set piece but we’ll be ready for the challenge.”
Elsewhere, there could be debuts for three new faces from the bench in Kyle Sinckler, Nathan Hughes and Ben Te’o.
ENGLAND TEAM TO PLAY SOUTH AFRICA
Autumn Internationals
Twickenham
Saturday, November 12th, 2016
Kick off 2:30pm
Live on Sky Sports 1
15 Mike Brown (Harlequins, 52 caps)
14 Marland Yarde (Harlequins, 9 caps)
13 Elliot Daly (Wasps, 5 caps)
12 Owen Farrell (Saracens, 43 caps)
11 Jonny May (Gloucester Rugby, 19 caps)
10 George Ford (Bath Rugby, 26 caps)
9 Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers, 61 caps)
1 Mako Vunipola (Saracens, 35 caps)
2 Dylan Hartley (capt)(Northampton Saints, 75 caps)
3 Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers, 65 caps)
4 Joe Launchbury (Wasps, 35 caps)
5 Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints, 49 caps)
6 Chris Robshaw (Harlequins, 51 caps)
7 Tom Wood (Northampton Saints, 42 caps)
8 Billy Vunipola (Saracens, 29 caps)
16 Jamie George (Saracens, 8 caps)
17 Joe Marler (Harlequins, 42 caps)
18 Kyle Sinckler (Harlequins, uncapped)
19 Dave Attwood (Bath Rugby, 23 caps)
20 Nathan Hughes (Wasps, uncapped)
21 Danny Care (Harlequins, 62 caps)
22 Ben Te’o (Worcester Warriors, uncapped)
23 Jonathan Joseph (Bath Rugby, 25 caps)
