Brown & Lawes return for England against Scotland

England head coach Stuart Lancaster has named his team to play Scotland on Saturday with Mike Brown and Courtney Lawes both returning to the starting line up.

Brown was concussed against Italy and missed England’s match against Ireland but has now fully recovered so he is named at fullback taking over from Alex Goode.

Lock Courtney Lawes comes into the team replacing George Kruis and partners David Attwood in the second row.

The return of Brown and Lawes are the only changes to the 15 that started in a 19-9 defeat to Ireland in Dublin.

Elsewhere, Leicester Tigers second row Geoff Parling and Northampton Saints back row Tom Wood are also back among the replacements for the Calcutta Cup clash.

On the back of some prominent domestic performances in the Aviva Premiership, they take over from Tom Croft (Leicester Tigers) and Nick Easter (Harlequins) respectively.

Finally, fit-again tighthead prop Kieran Brookes (Newcastle Falcons) has overcome a hip flexor problem to be named on the bench in place of Henry Thomas (Bath Rugby).

England Head Coach Stuart Lancaster said: “There’s always a lot of competition for places and having experienced players like Courtney, Tom and Geoff available after playing well for their clubs in the last few weeks adds to our options.

“It’s been an intense two weeks of training as everyone wants to be on that field on Saturday to put things right after Dublin and we have had to make some tough selection calls.

“Coming back to Twickenham will be huge for us and we are determined to put in a performance against a strong and motivated Scotland team.”

England

15. Mike Brown , 14. Anthony Watson , 13. Jonathan Joseph , 12. Luther Burrell , 11. Jack Nowell , 10. George Ford , 9. Ben Youngs , 8. Billy Vunipola , 7. Chris Robshaw (c), 6. James Haskell, 5. Courtney Lawes , 4. David Attwood , 3. Dan Cole, 2. Dylan Hartley ,1. Joe Marler

Replacements : 16. Tom Youngs , 17. Mako Vunipola , 18. Kieran Brookes , 19. Geoff Parling , 20. Tom Wood , 21. Richard Wigglesworth , 22. Danny Cipriani , 23. Billy Twelvetrees