England head coach Steve Borthwick has named his match-day 23 to face South Africa at Stade de France on Saturday, 21 October with three changes to the starting XV that beat Fiji in the quarter-finals. Joe Marler (pictured left) and George Martin come in at loosehead prop and second-row respectively, replacing Ellis Genge and Ollie Chessum, who drop to the bench. Freddie Steward is recalled at full-back in place of Marcus Smith, who is out of the 23 altogether.

1 Joe Marler
2 Jamie George
3 Dan Cole
4 Maro Itoje
5 George Martin
6 Courtney Lawes
7 Tom Curry
8 Ben Earl
9 Alex Mitchell
10 Owen Farrell (c)
11 Elliot Daly
12 Manu Tuilagi
13 Joe Marchant
14 Jonny May
15 Freddie Steward

Replacements:
16 Theo Dan
17 Ellis Genge
18 Kyle Sinckler
19 Ollie Chessum
20 Billy Vunipola
21 Danny Care
22 George Ford
23 Ollie Lawrence

•    Joe Marler will make just his third start of the year after earning six of his eight caps in 2023 off the bench. He has not started against South Africa since 2018 in Cape Town. 
•    George Martin earns just his fourth start since making his debut in 2021. His only other start of RWC23 came against Chile in Pool D. 
•    There are 13 survivors in this match-day squad from the RWC 2019 final (including six repeat starters): Jamie George, Kyle Sinckler, Maro Itoje, Courtney Lawes, Tom Curry, George Ford, Billy Vunipola, Jonny May, Owen Farrell, Manu Tuilagi, Elliot Daly, Joe Marler, and Dan Cole.
•    Only five players in the starting XV have started against South Africa in each of their past two meetings since the RWC 2019 final – Tom Curry, Maro Itoje, Jonny May, Freddie Steward and Manu Tuilagi. 
•    Owen Farrell joins Will Carling as the only other England captain to lead the team in two Rugby World Cup semi-finals. This will be his 99th start in his 111th test for England. He has won just two of six tests against South Africa as England captain, both in 2018. 
•    This will be his 15th career test against the Springboks for England and the British and Irish Lions combined.
•    Ben Earl has played the most minutes of any England player at RWC 2023 with 333. He has made the second-most carries for any forward at RWC 2023 with 48 behind Fiji’s Viliame Mata (54). He has beaten the second-most defenders of any forward (17) behind Argentina prop Thomas Gallo (18), made a team-high 60 tackles, and hit the joint-second most rucks (22) winning one jackal and one penalty. 
•    Courtney Lawes started in all three British and Irish Lions tests against South Africa in 2021 but has not played them in an England jersey since the RWC 2019 final.
•    Maro Itoje has missed just 10 minutes of game-time across his total career tests against the Springboks for England and the British and Irish Lions combined. He has played the full 80 minutes in his past six, and nine of his 10 tests since 2018. 
•    He has not been substituted in any test since July 2022 against Australia in Brisbane, playing the full 80 minutes in each of his past 16 tests. He scored his first test try against South Africa at Ellis Park in 2018.