No start for Henry Pollock as unchanged England side named for Argentina clash

England's Henry Pollock during a training session.

Henry Pollock has missed out on a place in England’s back row after Steve Borthwick named an unchanged team for Saturday’s clash with Argentina in Santiago del Estero.

Pollock delivered a hat-trick of dynamic tries against Fiji in Liverpool but his headline-grabbing 32-minute cameo off the bench has not been enough to displace Ben Earl at number eight.

A host of former England stars including Chris Ashton, Ben Youngs and Jeremy Guscott have called for his promotion to the starting XV, but Earl’s value as the team’s main ball carrier is seen as indispensable.

Borthwick has also resisted any temptation to break up the midfield combination of Seb Atkinson and Henry Slade, with Benhard Janse van Rensburg continuing on the bench having made his debut at Hill Dickinson Stadium.

The only changes made are to the bench where Ben Spencer comes in for Alex Mitchell, who was ruled out of the visit to northern Argentina by a hamstring injury sustained, and Emmanuel Iyogun is preferred ahead of George Kloska.

Teenage wing sensation Noah Caluori is set to win his second cap off the bench after making a try-scoring debut in Liverpool.

England face the final fixture of their July tour having compiled an unbeaten record against Argentina under Borthwick, winning all five fixtures including two on these shores last summer.

The first phase of the Nations Championship opened with a 45-21 mauling to South Africa before last Saturday’s 11-try destruction of Fiji ended their five-Test losing run.

Borthwick said: “We expect a fantastic atmosphere with passionate home support. It promises to be a great occasion and one the players are excited to embrace.” 

Meanwhile, Stafford McDowall will captain a much-changed Scotland team when they take on Fiji in their final summer encounter in the Nations Championship.

Only Gregor Brown retains his starting place following last weekend’s 42-28 defeat by South Africa in Pretoria and the forward switches from the second row to number eight.

Hooker Gregor Hiddleston and flanker Freddy Douglas are both set to make their first international starts when Fiji visit Murrayfield on Saturday in what is officially their home game.

Scotland’s strength in depth is evidenced by the fact that their two leading try scorers of all time, wingers Darcy Graham and Duhan van der Merwe, have been brought in for their first appearances of the summer series.

Seb Stephen could make his Scotland debut off the bench but there is plenty of experience among the replacements with the likes of Pierre Schoeman, Zander Fagerson, Scott Cummings, Magnus Bradbury, Jamie Dobie and Sione Tuipulotu all in line to feature at some stage.

Elsewhere, Steve Tandy has freshened up his Wales team for Saturday’s Nations Championship clash with South Africa in Durban.

Tandy has made six changes from the side beaten 35-21 by Argentina last weekend, with Teddy Williams, Alex Mann, Dan Edwards, Ben Thomas, Max Llewellyn and Louis Rees-Zammit coming in.

Captain Dewi Lake is fit to start having been a doubt with a groin injury this week but Ben Carter misses out with an ankle problem suffered in training on Wednesday.

Tandy has broken up the established centre pairing of Eddie James and Joe Hawkins, with Thomas and Llewellyn coming in.

“I think it’s a bit of freshness in the centres,” said the Wales head coach. “I thought the combination with Joe and Eddie has been excellent for us but we feel Max and Ben deserve an opportunity.

“Max I thought did really well for us in the autumn, unfortunately he got injured, and then Ben has responded really well since being left out from the England game.

“It’s exciting for us. Moving things around, freshening up, there’s lots of travel. And obviously it’s the back end of the season so it’s a good opportunity for us to try a few different combinations.” 

Williams returned from a serious foot injury against the Barbarians last month, and Tandy added: “It’s brilliant for Teddy, how hard he’s worked, and obviously it was a horrific injury.

“The way he’s come back, the way he’s trained and playing against the Barbarians, I thought he had a real impact when he came off the bench on the weekend. It’s thoroughly well deserved.” The loss to Argentina followed a morale-boosting win against Fiji, but taking on the Springboks in Durban is undoubtedly a formidable task.

Tandy sees it as an opportunity for his men, saying: “It’s definitely going to be a physical encounter, you see the set-piece, every breakdown.

“It’s going to be an awesome opportunity for us to pitch up against South Africa and test ourselves against the best team in the world in their own home. It’s going to be exciting for us but we know what they bring.

“I’ve loved the year, it’s been awesome for me, I’ve loved getting to know the boys. I think we’re developing as a team and finishing off our season with a game against the world champions is outstanding for us and another opportunity to experience different things.” 

With Carter sidelined, Gloucester lock Freddie Thomas comes into the matchday squad on the bench having flown out to South Africa as injury cover.

“It’s a baptism of fire for Freddie,” added Tandy. “He was unlucky not to be in the 33, he came in, trained well and it’s a great opportunity for him.”

England: M Smith (Harlequins); T Freeman (Northampton), H Slade (Exeter), S Atkinson (Gloucester), I Feyi-Waboso (Exeter); F Smith (Northampton), J van Poortvliet (Leicester); E Genge (Bristol), J George (Saracens, capt), J Heyes (Leicester), A Coles (Northampton), G Martin (Saracens), O Chessum (Leicester), G Pepper (Bath), B Earl (Saracens).

Replacements: L Cowan-Dickie (Sale), E Iyogun (Northampton), A Opoku-Fordjour (Sale), T Curry (Sale), H Pollock (Northampton), B Spencer (Bath), B Janse van Rensburg (Bristol), N Caluori (Saracens).

Scotland: Jordan (Bristol), Graham (Edinburgh), Smith (Glasgow), McDowall (Glasgow, capt), van der Merwe (Edinburgh, Burke (Saracens), Horne (Glasgow); Sutherland, Hiddleston (both Glasgow), Rae (Edinburgh), Gray (Perpignan), Williamson (Glasgow), Bayliss (Bath), Douglas (Edinburgh), Brown (Glasgow).

Replacements: Stephen, Z Fagerson, Cummings, Dobie, Tuipulotu (all Glasgow), Schoeman, Bradbury, McConnell (all Edinburgh).