Saints star Lawes to skipper England against Ireland

Lawes was captain for the win against Wales last month, and he keeps his place this weekend.

England boss Eddie Jones said: “We’ve been looking at this game as a semi-final.

"Ireland are the most cohesive side in the world right now and it will be a good test this weekend.

“We’ve prepared really well for this game. We did some good team togetherness work in Bristol and had a solid week of training on the pitch here.

“We are looking forward to going after them in front of a great home crowd at Twickenham.

"It’s been special having 82,000 supporters back in for our Six Nations games and it will be a great Test match for them.”

England: Steward; Malins, Marchant, Slade, Nowell; Smith, Randall; Genge, George, Sinckler; Itoje, Ewels; Lawes, Curry, Simmonds.

Replacements: Blamire, Marler, Stuart, Launchbury, Dombrandt, Youngs, Ford, Daly.

Ireland: Keenan; Conway, Ringrose, Aki, Lowe; Sexton (c), Gibson-Park; Healy, Sheehan, Furlong; Beirne, Ryan; O'Mahony, van der Flier, Doris.

Replacements: Herring, Kilcoyne, Bealham, Henderson, Conan, Murray, Carbery, Henshaw.