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England make five changes for Scotland Six Nations clash, Ben Youngs dropped

Photo by Jean Catuffe/Getty Images

England head coach Eddie Jones has made five changes to the starting lineup to face Scotland in the Six Nations on Saturday, with Ben Youngs dropped to the bench.

Gloucester's Willi Heinz will replace Youngs at scrum-half with Lewis Ludlam, Mako Vunipola, George Kruis and Jonathan Joseph all set to start.

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Courtney Lawes was also dropped to the bench while Joe Marler has been left out of the matchday squad completely after England lost their opening fixtures to France last weekend.

"Preparation this week has been great," Jones said in a statement. "We have sought to address the issues from the France game and have had a really good and sharp preparation for Scotland.

"Scotland are a dangerous side. They like to play with a lot of width and with a lot of flow and tempo in their game. We want to make sure we dominate the gain line.

"Their win record against England at Murrayfield is substantially higher than their overall record against us, so we have to recognise they are a dangerous beast and we have to be at our best to beat them."

Jones was forced to ring the changes with both Manu Tuilagi and Anthony Watson ruled out of the match through injury.

Meanwhile, Saracens forward Ben Earl and Bath's Tom Dunn could make their international debuts off the bench.

England lost on their last visit to Murrayfield and drew 38-38 with Gregor Townsend's team at Twickenham last year after blowing a 31-0 lead. Scotland also lost their opening game of this season's competition, away to Ireland.

"Their win record against England at Murrayfield is substantially higher than their overall record against us, so we have to recognise they are a dangerous beast and we have to be at our best to beat them," Jones added, despite the fact that the Scots have won the home fixture only once in the last 12 years.

In that 25-13 victory two years ago England were blown away at the breakdown as their loose trio of Chris Robshaw, Lawes and Nathan Hughes struggled. Ludlum, Sam Underhill and Curry, albeit operating from the unfamiliar No. 8 position, look a far more dynamic proposition this time for what should be a fascinating battle in an area of strength of the Scots.

If Jones has largely corrected that breakdown issue, his team's failure to fix problems "on the hoof" remains a major concern. It was at its most glaring in last year's Calcutta Cup fixture as England's players looked like rabbits in the headlights as Scotland somehow came from 31-0 down after half an hour to lead 38-31, before George Ford saved the home side's blushes.

The problem was obvious too in last year's World Cup final defeat by South Africa and in last week's loss in Paris, where England looked desperately short of ideas and invention despite spending long periods camped in the French 22.

"We can do better with that," said captain Owen Farrell, when asked about the issue, for which he is starting to attract a fair amount of criticism. "Eddie spoke about leadership being a big part of it and we want to make sure that we see stuff, quickly, and get people to buy in to that and push forward - that probably took too long last Sunday. "We are constantly working on that type of stuff and we had a good look at ourselves to see how we can do it better."

England starting XV to face Scotland:

George Furbank, Jonny May, Jonathan Joseph, Owen Farrell (captain), Elliot Daly, George Ford, Willi Heinz, Mako Vunipola, Jamie George, Kyle Sinckler, Maro Itoje, George Kruis, Lewis Ludlam, Sam Underhill, Tom Curry.

Replacements: Tom Dunn, Ellis Genge, Will Stuart, Joe Launchbury, Courtney Lawes, Ben Earl, Ben Youngs, Ollie Devoto.

Information from Reuters was included in this report.