England begin their first Six Nations campaign under head coach Steve Borthwick against a Scotland side hoping to win successive games at Twickenham for the first time.

Scotland won on their last visit to Twickenham in 2021 and defeated their oldest rivals at Murrayfield last year.

They are aiming to improve on a fourth-place finish in last year’s tournament.

Team news

The build-up to England’s first game under former captain Borthwick has been disrupted by a raft of injuries which means Luke Cowan-Dickie, Courtney Lawes, Henry Slade, Tom Curry, Elliot Daly and Dan Kelly are all unavailable, while Manu Tuilagi has not been selected.

Ollie Hassell-Collins makes his debut on the left wing after scoring eight tries in the Premiership for London Irish this season, while Owen Farrell, reinstated as captain, starts at inside centre, with Marcus Smith at 10.

Jamie George has recovered from concussion to take his place in an experienced front row, with replacement hooker Jack Walker set to make his debut from among the replacements.

Scotland are missing several big names of their own including Hamish Watson, who misses out after only making his return from concussion for Edinburgh last weekend, while London Irish’s Ben White is preferred to Ali Price at scrum-half.

Luke Crosbie makes just a second start in the visiting back-row alongside Jamie Ritchie, who captains Scotland for the first time in the Six Nations.

Huw Jones and Sione Tuipulotu start in the midfield, with British and Irish Lions centre Chris Harris on the bench.

Stuart Hogg starts at full-back despite not playing for Exeter Chiefs since 24 December because of a heel injury.

Commentator’s notes

Alastair Eykyn: A new era dawns for England, and a win of any kind would act as a positive building block for Steve Borthwick’s project.

Step one: banish the memory of those boos that rang out at Twickenham in November, and heralded the departure of Eddie Jones.

Step two: subdue an ambitious Scotland side picked on form, and without any fear of a visit to the home of rugby. Memorably the Scots won at Twickenham two years ago, and played out a thrilling draw in 2019.

Borthwick will hope to have bolstered the England set-piece in the short time that he has had to prepare, and is persisting with a Marcus Smith-Owen Farrell midfield combination that (so far) has failed to fire.

Scotland coach Gregor Townsend has been bold in selection, with the inclusion of flanker Luke Crosbie, scrum-half Ben White and centre Huw Jones a clear statement of attacking intent.

View from both camps

England head coach Steve Borthwick: “There are few fixtures in the rugby calendar that excite both players and supporters alike more than the annual Six Nations meeting of the Auld Enemy as they battle for the honour of lifting the Calcutta Cup.

“Another packed Twickenham will witness the start of the next chapter of English rugby in one of the most keenly contested tournaments in the world.

“To a man, the players are determined to play with the commitment, fight and desire that is at the very heart of representing England, the sort of passion that our tremendous supporters rightly expect.”

Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend on dropping Ali Price: “Ali and I have worked together for a number of years and he has been very good for us over that period.

“We chatted a week ago about how it was important he improved, whether that was just through training or getting game time with Glasgow at the weekend. He’s very aware of that too.

“He’s not been able to have as many games with Glasgow as he would have liked but he did play well at the weekend (away to Dragons). He’s making progress at getting back to his best.”

Line-ups

England: 15- Freddie Steward; 14-Max Malins, 13-Joe Marchant, 12-Owen Farrell (capt), 11-Ollie Hassell-Collins; 10-Marcus Smith, 9-Jack van Poortvliet; 8-Alex Dombrandt, 7-Ben Curry, 6-Lewis Ludlam; 5-Ollie Chessum, 4-Maro Itoje; 3-Kyle Sinckler, 2-Jamie George, 1-Ellis Genge

Replacements: 16-Jack Walker, 17-Mako Vunipola, 18-Dan Cole, 19-Nick Isiekwe, 20-Ben Earl, 21-Ben Youngs, 22-Ollie Lawrence, 23-Anthony Watson

Scotland: 15-Stuart Hogg, 14-Kyle Steyn, 13-Huw Jones, 12-Sione Tuipulotu, 11-Duhan van der Merwe, 10-Finn Russell, 9-Ben White, 8-Matt Fagerson, 7-Luke Crosbie, 6-Jamie Ritchie (capt), 5-Grant Gilchrist, 4-Richie Gray, 3-WP Nel, 2-George Turner, 1-Pierre Schoeman

Replacements: 16-Fraser Brown, 17-Jamie Bhatti, 18-Simon Berghan, 19-Jonny Gray, 20-Jack Dempsey, 21-George Horne, 22-Blair Kinghorn, 23-Chris Harris

Match facts

Head-to-head

• Scotland can win three games in a row against England for the first time since 1972.
• England have won just one of the last five Six Nations meetings (D1, L3), following a run of seven successive victories before that.

England

• England have lost five of their last 10 Test matches (W3, D1), including their two most recent Six Nations fixtures – their worst run in the tournament since losing the last three games of 2018.
• England have lost their last three opening round fixtures after winning five in a row previously.

Scotland

• Scotland have won five of their last seven away matches in the Six Nations (L2) – the same tally of victories as in their previous 43 championship fixtures on the road.
• Scotland, however, did lose their most recent Six Nations fixture in Ireland and could sustain back-to-back tournament defeats away from home for the first time since 2018.

Match officials

Referee: Paul Williams (New Zealand)

Touch judges: Ben O’Keefe (New Zealand) & James Doleman (New Zealand)

TMO: Brendon Pickerill (New Zealand)