Line-ups:
England
1.Genge 2.George(C) 3.Stuart 4.Itoje 5.Martin 6.T.Curry 7.Underhill 8.Earl
9.Van Poortvliet 10.M.Smith 11.Sleightholme 12.Slade 13.Lawrence 14.Freeman 15.Furbank
16.Cowan-Dickie 17.Baxter 18.Opoku-Fordjour 19.Isiekwe 20.Cunningham-South 21.Randall 22.F.Smith 23.Roebuck
England pick a strong team to face Japan, showing just how crucial it is for them to win this game. The front five are unchanged from the first 3 games. The only change in the pack is Tom Curry returning from concussion to replace Cunningham-South at blindside flanker. This decision was made despite Curry having suffered multiple concussions with the most recent one just two weeks ago. Aside from the health concerns, it is a notably small back row that has been picked. This has probably been done to counter the extreme tempo at which Japan like to play. England are also probably less concerned about the Japanese set piece so feel that they can sacrifice a line-out option in order to play with more pace. Another sign of a change in tactic is the return of George Furbank to fullback in place of Freddie Steward. Elsewhere, Fin Smith is on the bench ahead of George Ford alongside Asher Opoku-Fudjour who will make his England debut on Sunday at tighthead prop. Given England's lack of depth at the position, this is a big opportunity for the youngster to show he has what it takes to succeed at test level.
Japan
1.Okabe 2.Harada 3.Takeuchi 4.Waqa 5.Uluiviti 6.Shimokawa 7.Himeno 8.Makisi
9.Saito(C) 10.McCurran 11.Naikabula 12.Fifita 13.Riley 14.Osada 15.Matsunaga
16.Lee 17.Morikawa 18.Tamefusa 19.Akiyama 20.Tatafu 21.Gunter 22.Fujiwara 23.Kajimura
Last time Japan played England it did not go well for the brave blossoms. In fact, in their 5 meetings against tier one nations (Fiji included) since the World Cup, they have lost by a combined score of 251-79. That leaves an average score of 50-16. They have also lost to Georgia at home in that time. Eddie Jones's new brand of super-fast rugby is obviously taking some time to make a serious impact but he will be hoping that Japan can take down a wounded England team, particularly given some of the things about him in the press in recent weeks.
My prediction:
England 42 v 19 Japan
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