Saints star Sleightholme handed first England start as they host South Africa
Saints star Ollie Sleightholme will start for England for the first time when they host South Africa on Saturday (kick-off 5.40pm).
Sleightholme came off the bench to score twice in last Saturday’s 42-37 defeat to Australia, and he has done enough to earn the No.11 shirt at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham this weekend.
Tommy Freeman will be on the other wing as he continues his record of starting all of the Autumn Nations Series matches so far.
But George Furbank, who was at full-back for the first two games, is not in the matchday squad this week.
Fin Smith continues to be overlooked as Marcus Smith remains at fly-half, with George Ford again on the bench.
Trevor Davison and Alex Coles are also with England but have yet to be selected this autumn.
Ahead of the clash with South Africa, England boss Steve Borthwick said: “We're excited to challenge ourselves against the world's top-ranked team and back-to-back Rugby World Cup champions.
“Test matches against South Africa are always thrilling contests, and I'm sure Saturday will be no exception.”
England team to face South Africa: 15 Freddie Steward (Leicester Tigers, 34 caps); 14 Tommy Freeman (Saints, 13 caps), 13 Ollie Lawrence (Bath Rugby, 29 caps), 12 Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs, 67 caps), 11 Ollie Sleightholme (Saints, 3 caps); 10 Marcus Smith (Harlequins, 37 caps), 9 Jack van Poortvliet (Leicester Tigers, 14 caps); 1 Ellis Genge (Bristol Bears, 64 caps) – vice-captain, 2 Jamie George (Saracens, 95 caps) – captain, 3 Will Stuart (Bath Rugby, 43 caps); 4 Maro Itoje (Saracens, 86 caps) – vice-captain, 5 George Martin (Leicester Tigers, 17 caps); 6 Chandler Cunningham-South (Harlequins, 9 caps), 7 Sam Underhill (Bath Rugby, 38 caps), 8 Ben Earl (Saracens, 35 caps) – vice-captain.
Replacements: 16 Luke Cowan-Dickie (Sale Sharks, 42 caps), 17 Fin Baxter (Harlequins, 4 caps), 18 Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers, 117 caps), 19 Nick Isiekwe (Saracens, 13 caps), 20 Alex Dombrandt (Harlequins, 19 caps), 21 Harry Randall (Bristol Bears, 9 caps), 22 George Ford (Sale Sharks, 98 caps) – vice captain, 23 Tom Roebuck (Sale Sharks, 1 cap).