England welcome Japan to Twickenham Stadium on Saturday afternoon for the penultimate round of group fixtures in the inaugural Nations Championship campaign.

In their first home match, Steve Borthwick’s men posted a convincing 45-22 victory over Australia, while Eddie Jones’s side slumped to their third defeat of the campaign against Wales at the Principality Stadium.

Match preview

Following a dismal Six Nations campaign earlier in the year, losing four of their five matches to finish fifth for only the third time ever, England will be fairly encouraged by the way that they have bounced back in the first ever edition of the Nations Championship.

Since falling to an expected defeat against South Africa in their competition opener, Borthwick’s side have posted bonus-point victories over Fiji, Argentina and most recently Australia to fire them up to second in the Northern Hemisphere table and put them in contention for the maiden tournament crown.

Having scored an impressive 26 tries and amassed 170 points in their opening four matches, a tally bettered only by the Springboks, England’s attacking prowess has undoubtedly been their greatest strength, as demonstrated last weekend when they put 45 points past Australia, the most the Wallabies have conceded in a competitive fixture in over two years.

Victorious in each of their previous six encounters with Japan, including a thumping 59-14 triumph when the sides last met at Twickenham Stadium in November 2024, England will be confident of extending their winning streak this weekend too and potentially climbing to the top of the Northern Hemisphere table.

After narrowly missing out in the Pacific Nations Cup final last year, falling to a 33-27 loss against Fiji at the America First Field Stadium, Japan will be underwhelmed with their performances in this year’s Nations Championship campaign.

Despite making a strong start to the tournament by claiming a 27-10 victory over Italy on the opening weekend, putting them third in the Southern Hemisphere standings, the Brave Blossoms have since lost each of their subsequent three outings, collecting just one additional point in the process and slipping to fifth in the table, above only Fiji.

In contrast to Saturday’s opposition, the attack has certainly been the downfall for Japan so far, with Jones’s men failing to bank a four try bonus-point in any of their four fixtures and scoring just 83 points over that span, a figure only better than Fiji and Italy.

Facing an England side who have scored over 30 points in each of their previous six encounters with Japan, the Brave Blossoms are unquestionably the underdogs heading into this weekend’s clash at Twickenham Stadium, but with victory offering the visitors the chance to climb to third in the standings, there would be no better time to pull off a historic upset.

England Nations Championship form:

England form (all competitions):  

Japan Nations Championship form:

Japan form (all competitions):  

Team News

With next weekend’s clash against the All Blacks in mind, Borthwick has made several alterations to his pack for Saturday’s encounter, with Henry Pollock among those returning to the side after scoring two tries last time out, while Maro Itoje, Alex Coles and Ben Earl are the only forwards to retain their starting places.

There has also been a significant shake-up in the backline, where Jack van Poortvliet and Henry Slade are the only players to keep their spots, while George Ford, Cadan Murley, Max Ojomoh, Will Joseph and Freddie Steward all come into the starting lineup.

Theo Dan, Emmanuel Iyogun and Joe Heyes also provide the hosts with strong front row replacements off the bench, while Archie McParland has also been named and is in line to make his England debut at Twickenham Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

On the other hand, Japan have not made a single change to the scrum that faced Wales last weekend, as Mamoru Harada features at hooker, Harry Hockings keeps his place on the second row and Jack Cornelsen rounds off the forwards at number eight.

There is just one difference to the Brave Blossoms’ backs too, with Riku Tokito coming in to replace Inoke Burua on the wing and make up the back three alongside Kippei Ishida and Kazuma Ueda.

Much like their hosts, Jones also has an entirely fresh front row to utilise among the replacements, while Tiennan Costley and Shinobu Fujiwara can possibly give the visitors some useful experience off the bench in the latter stages of the match.

England starting lineup:

15 Freddie Steward, 14 Will Joseph, 13 Henry Slade, 12 Max Ojomoh, 11 Cadan Murley, 10 George Ford, 9 Jack van Poortvliet; 1 Ellis Genge, 2 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 3 Asher Opoku-Fordjour, 4 Maro Itoje, 5 George Martin, 6 Alex Coles, 7 Ben Earl, 8 Henry Pollock

Replacements:

16 Theo Dan, 17 Emmanuel Iyogun, 18 Joe Heyes, 19 Arthur Clark, 20 Ben Curry, 21 Greg Fisilau, 22 Archie McParland, 23 Marcus Smith

Japan starting lineup:

15 Kazuma Ueda, 14 Kippei Ishida, 13 Dylan Riley, 12 Samisoni Tua, 11 Riku Tokito, 10 Riku Kitahara, 9 Naoto Saito; 1 Yota Kamimori, 2 Mamoru Harada, 3 Shuhei Takeuchi, 4 Harry Hockings, 5 Warner Dearns, 6 Ben Gunter, 7 Kanji Shimokawa, 8 Jack Cornelsen

Replacements:

16 Kenji Sato, 17 Sojiro Otsuka, 18 Opeti Helu, 19 Michael Stolberg, 20 Tiennan Costley, 21 Shinobu Fujiwara, 22 Shinya Komura, 23 Jisu Lee

We say: England 42-12 Japan

Having the opportunity to make a statement by climbing above Australia and into third in the Southern Hemisphere table, the Brave Blossoms will be extremely motivated to etch their names into Japanese history and claim victory at Twickenham Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

However, with England seemingly only getting stronger since their opening weekend defeat, it is difficult to see the visitors pulling that off and we are backing the hosts to climb to the summit of the Northern Hemisphere standings with yet another bonus point win.