England welcome Australia to Twickenham Stadium on Sunday afternoon for the first of their three home matches in this month’s Nations Championship schedule.

In their previous competition outing, Steve Borthwick’s men held on to beat Argentina 31-24 in Santiago del Estero, while Les Kiss’s side posted a convincing win over Italy at HBF Park.

Match preview

Heading into the tournament off the back of another disappointing Rugby Championship campaign and having lost their previous four matches, Australia will likely have mixed feelings about how their Nations Championship matches in familiar territory panned out.

After falling short late on against Ireland in Sydney, the Wallabies were unable to bounce back immediately, suffering a convincing defeat to France at Suncorp Stadium, but having responded by thumping Italy 57-10 in their final home fixture, Kiss’s side now sit third in the Southern Hemisphere standings, behind only South Africa and New Zealand.

Australia head into their away fixtures following a predominantly positive summer friendly schedule too, as despite suffering consecutive defeats to New Zealand last month, Sunday's visitors were able to post impressive wins over each of Japan, Argentina and, most notably, the Springboks, underlining their ability to compete with the very best in world rugby.

Despite a generally poor record at Twickenham over the past decade, the Wallabies will also take confidence from their thrilling 42-37 victory there two years ago as they look to upset England once again this weekend and strengthen their position in the Southern Hemisphere table.

England Nations Championship form:

England form (all competitions):  

Australia Nations Championship form:

Australia form (all competitions):

Team News

Borthwick has made a trio of changes to the pack that faced Argentina in their previous outing, with Fin Baxter, Maro Itoje and Ben Curry coming in to replace Ellis Genge, George Martin and Guy Pepper.

Across the backline, there is just one difference for England as Marcus Smith makes way for George Furbank at full-back and Fin Smith manages to recover from a calf problem to start once again at fly-half.

Although big names such as Tom Curry, Alex Mitchell and Sam Underhill miss out with injury woes, the hosts have the likes of Genge, Martin, Henry Pollock and Marcus Smith ready to utilise off the bench later in the match.

Much like Sunday’s opposition, Kiss has made three changes to the scrum that faced Italy in Perth, with Brandon Paenga-Amosa, Rob Valetini and Carlo Tizzano making way for Billy Pollard, Lukhan Salakaia-Loto and Fraser McReight respectively.

There is also just the one alteration amongst the Wallabies backs too, with Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii moving from outside centre to replace Harry Potter on the wing and Isaac Henry coming in to fill the vacancy at 13.

While destructive prop Taniela Tupou can only find a place on the Australia bench, he joins Josh Nasser and Isaac Kailea to provide an imposing front-row trio among the visitors’ replacements.

England starting lineup:

15 George Furbank, 14 Tommy Freeman, 13 Henry Slade, 12 Seb Atkinson, 11 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, 10 Fin Smith, 9 Jack van Poortvliet; 1 Fin Baxter, 2 Jamie George, 3 Joe Heyes, 4 Maro Itoje, 5 Alex Coles, 6 Ollie Chessum, 7 Ben Curry, 8 Ben Earl

Replacements:

16 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17 Ellis Genge, 18 Will Stuart, 19 George Martin, 20 Greg Fisilau, 21 Henry Pollock, 22 Ben Spencer, 23 Marcus Smith

Australia starting lineup:

15 Tom Wright, 14 Max Jorgensen, 13 Isaac Henry, 12 Len Ikitau, 11 Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, 10 Declan Meredith, 9 Ryan Lonergan; 1 Angus Bell, 2 Billy Pollard, 3 Allan Alaalatoa, 4 Josh Canham, 5 Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, 6 Jeremy Williams, 7 Fraser McReight, 8 Harry Wilson

Replacements:

16 Josh Nasser, 17 Isaac Kailea, 18 Taniela Tupou, 19 Rob Valetini, 20 Carlo Tizzano, 21 Tate McDermott, 22 Ben Donaldson, 23 Filipo Daugunu

We say: England 34-24 Australia

With both sides enjoying a positive end to their respective opening sets of fixtures, Sunday’s contest promises to be one of the highlights of the Nations Championship weekend and a closely fought encounter that could easily go either way.

However, having seemingly put their early-year struggles behind them, we believe England will make their home advantage count and are backing Borthwick’s men to return to winning ways at Twickenham, potentially lifting them to the top of the Northern Hemisphere standings.