George Ford has been handed a recall at fly-half ahead of Marcus Smith as England head coach Steve Borthwick makes 10 personnel changes to his starting XV to face Japan on Saturday.

Harlequins playmaker Smith must be content with a place on the bench; his last start at fly-half was in the opening game of the 2024 Six Nations.

As Telegraph Sport revealed on Wednesday, Borthwick has handed starts to Max Ojomoh at inside centre and Will Joseph on the wing, while Henry Pollock starts only his second Test at No 8 for the Nations Championship match at the Allianz Stadium.

Yet with a potential eye on next week’s encounter against New Zealand, Borthwick has gone much further than experimentation, particularly coming off a six-day turnaround heading into the game against Eddie Jones’ Japan. Only captain Maro Itoje, scrum-half Jack van Poortvliet and outside centre Henry Slade retain their same positions from the 45-22 victory against Australia on Sunday. Ben Earl moves from No 8 to openside flanker while Alex Coles switches from the second row to blindside flanker, with George Martin coming in to partner Saracens team-mate Itoje in the second row.

Up front, there is a brand new front row with Ellis Genge packing down with the Sale Sharks pair of Luke Cowan-Dickie and Asher Opoku-Fordjour. At half-back, Van Poortvliet partners Ford, who last featured for England in this year’s 42-21 defeat by Ireland, which also marked Pollock’s only previous Test start.

Bath’s Ojomoh, who was man of the match for England in his last appearance against Argentina 12 months ago, is rewarded for his excellent display for England A and forms a midfield pairing with Slade.

In the back three, full-back Freddie Steward is recalled in place of the injured George Furbank while Joseph and Harlequins’ Cadan Murley are given the starting wing berths.

Northampton scrum-half Archie McParland, 21, is in line to make his debut off the bench which also includes Northampton prop Emmanuel Iyogun, Gloucester Arthur Clark and Exeter Greg Fisilau, who all have just one cap.

“We’re all delighted for Archie,” Borthwick said. “He’s had some bad luck with injury, so it’s especially pleasing to be able to name him in an England matchday 23 for the first time. He’s an outstanding young talent who has worked hard to get to this point, and we’re all excited to see how he goes.”