Saints prop Iyogun set for Test debut as England prepare for Argentina clash
Saints prop Emmanuel Iyogun is in line to win his first senior cap for England in Saturday's Nations Championship clash against Argentina in Santiago del Estero.
Iyogun has been named among the replacements for the Test at the Estadio Único Madre de Ciudades, with the game starting at 8.10pm.
Joining him on the bench is Saints club-mate Henry Pollock, who fails to earn a start despite scoring a hat-trick last weekend, while three other Franklin's Gardens favourites retain their places in an unchanged starting team.
They are winger Tommy Freeman, fly-half Fin Smith and second row forward Alex Coles.
Scrum-half Alex Mitchell misses out after suffering a hamstring injury last weekend, and his place on the bench is taken by Bath's Ben Spencer.
Iyogun, who is 25, has been involved in senior England squads before, but never made the match day 23, but he is set to finally win that first cap against the Pumas.
Freeman wins his 30th cap, Smith his 19th and Coles his 22nd.
The call-up signals quite the end to the season for Iyogun, who made his 100th Saints appearance in their Gallagher PREM Final win over Exeter Chiefs at Twickenham last month.
When Iyogun gets on, he will become the 73rd Saints player to play for England, and the first debutant since Pollock at the start of 2025.
It has been a mixed Nations Championship so far for England, who lost their opening match in South Africa before thrashing Fiji at Everton's Hill Dickenson Stadium last weekend.
Head coach Steve Borthwick said: "We’re excited by the challenge of playing Los Pumas in Santiago del Estero.
“We expect a fantastic atmosphere with passionate home support.
"It promises to be a great occasion, and one the players are excited to embrace.”
The match will comes just days after England's footballers had their hearts broken by Argentina in the semi-final of the World Cup.
Meanwhile, Rory Hutchinson has been left out of the Scotland squad for their match against Fiji at Murrayfield on Saturday.
Coach Gregor Townsend has made 14 changes to the team that was beaten in South Africa last weekend, and Hutchinson gets the weekend off.
England team to play Argentina: M Smith; Freeman, Slade, Atkinson, Feyi-Waboso; F Smith, Van Poortvliet; Genge, George, Heyes, Coles, Martin, Chessum, Pepper, Earl. Replacements: Cowan-Dickie, Iyogun, Opoku-Fordjour, Curry, Pollock, Spencer, Janse van Rensburg, Caluori