Chessum starts in back row in only England change

Under-pressure England have made a solitary change to their line-up to face France in the final round of the Six Nations on Saturday with Ollie Chessum coming into the back row.

“Under-pressure England have made a solitary change to their line-up to face France in the final round of the Six Nations on Saturday with Ollie Chessum coming into the back row”

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The versatile Chessum, 25, started the first three games of England's campaign in the second row but will add weight, ball-carrying power and a useful line-out option as blind-side flanker.

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With Tom Curry out with a calf injury sustained in the warm-up of their loss to Italy, Guy Pepper shifts to open-side and Sam Underhill, who came into the starting line-up as a last-minute replacement for Curry in Rome, drops to the bench.

England: Daly; Roebuck, Freeman, S Atkinson, Murley; F Smith, Spencer; Genge, George, Heyes, Itoje (capt), Coles, Chessum, Pepper, Earl.

Replacements: Cowan-Dickie, Rodd, Davison, Cunningham-South, Underhill, Pollock, Van Poortvliet, M Smith.

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Ben Earl, who took on much of the ball-carrying against Italy, continues at number eight as part of a back row that has more heft than previous combinations selected by head coach Steve Borthwick, and Underhill and Marcus Smith could win their 50th England caps off the bench.

"Ollie came on against Italy and did a really good job from a ball-carrying perspective, from a line-out perspective, in the contact area and the energy he gave the team," head coach Steve Borthwick told Rugby Union Weekly of Chessum.

“Under-pressure England have made a solitary change to their line-up to face France in the final round of the Six Nations on Saturday with Ollie Chessum coming into the back row”

BBC

"We have got Alex Coles who has developed so much as a player over the last period, he has played well in all the minutes he has had in this tournament.

I saw signs of Maro Itoje really starting to produce on Saturday, we all saw the number of turnovers he won and the presence he was around the pitch.

So it's a way of having all three of them this week, with Tom Curry being unavailable.

The other factor is France's forward pack are always very athletic and very powerful and I think having a player like Ollie Chessum in the back row helps us there."

England had earmarked this match as a potential title decider before the start of the Six Nations, but defeats by Scotland, Ireland and Italy have left them fifth in the table and another loss would condemn them to the worst campaign in 27 years of the Six Nations.

"It's a huge challenge under the lights in Paris against a very strong France side," added Borthwick, who was backed by his Rugby Football Union boss on Sunday to turn around the team's form.

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France will wear a special commemorative shirt to mark 120 years since the start of the teams' rivalry, have won the past four meetings on home soil, and go into the final round level with Scotland on 16 points with Scotland due to play Ireland in the first match of the day at 14:10 GMT.