Steve Borthwick stacks England's bench for Nations Championship opener against Boks

Jamie George captains the side, with Ollie Chessum and Ellis Genge serving as vice-captains. The match marks England's opening fixture in the inaugural Nations Championship, with matches against Fiji and Argentina to follow in the coming weeks.

"Playing South Africa at Ellis Park is one of the great tests in world rugby and an opportunity we're excited to embrace," said Borthwick.

"We've prepared well since we arrived here last week and I sense a real excitement within the squad to get our Nations Championship campaign underway."

Following the match in Johannesburg, England return for an 'away' fixture against Fiji at Everton's Hill Dickinson Stadium in Liverpool before travelling to Argentina to face Los Pumas at Estadio Unico Madre de Ciudades, Santiago del Estero in Round 3.

England - 15 George Furbank, 14 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, 13 Tommy Freeman, 12 Seb Atkinson, 11 Cadan Murley, 10 Fin Smith, 9 Jack van Poortvliet, 8 Ben Earl, 7 Tom Curry, 6 Ollie Chessum, 5 George Martin, 4 Alex Coles, 3 Joe Heyes, 2 Jamie George (c), 1 Ellis Genge.

Replacements: 16 Luke Cowan-Dickie,17 Beno Obano, 18 Asher Opoku-Fordjour, 19 Charlie Ewels, 20 Guy Pepper, 21 Henry Pollock, 22 Alex Mitchell, 23 Marcus Smith.

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