Alec Hepburn will make his first England start in the opening match of the autumn internationals against South Africa on Saturday.
Hepburn starts at No.1 in an inexperienced, injury-hit forward pack that also includes Kyle Sinckler and Mark Wilson, who has been selected at No.8 ahead of the uncapped Zach Mercer.
Brad Shields wins his third cap at blindside with four-cap Tom Curry, impressive in the 2-1 series defeat against the Springboks, keeping the No.7 shirt.
Hooker Dylan Hartley skippers the side alongside co-captain Owen Farrell, who starts at fly-half.
Manu Tuilagi, who last played for England in 2016 and who has endured a wretched four-year run of injuries, is named on the bench along with uncapped prop Ben Moon.
Ben Te’o and Henry Slade start in midfield while Jack Nowell and Jonny May have been named on the wings ahead of Chris Ashton, who failed to make the 23-man matchday squad.
Ben Youngs will line up alongside Farrell at scrum-half and Elliot Daly starts at fullback.
England have been training in Portugal this week and head coach Eddie Jones said “a lot of good work” has been done on the side’s set piece and organisation following a difficult 2018, which has seen England win only three matches from eight this year.
“We have put in a new defence system and our attack looks more organised than it was on the South Africa tour,” Jones said.
“Against South Africa you have got the physical battle up front and then you have to be tactically smart in how you attack against them.
“We need to find ways to gain momentum, then once we find momentum, convert that to points.”
The Springboks will be without several key players on Saturday as the Test falls outside World Rugby’s international window. Even so, they will present the sternest of challenges to the team Jones has been forced to somewhat cobble together in the face of a long injury and suspension list.
“We’ve lost 400 caps with the loss of the Vunipola brothers, Joe Launchbury and Courtney Lawes so that experience is hard to replace but we’ve still managed to name a very strong bench of finishers with Jamie George and Danny Care who are outstanding players and they will lead the final charge,” Jones said.
On his selection of 29-year-old Wilson, who made his debut in Argentina in 2017, he added: “He is a very good defensive player, hard on the ball, gives everything to the team and certainly against the big South Africa forwards his chop tackling will be very important.”
England team to face South Africa:
Backs: 15. Elliot Daly 14. Jack Nowell 13. Henry Slade 12. Ben Te’o 11. Jonny May 10. Owen Farrell (co-captain) 9. Ben Youngs
Forwards: 1. Alec Hepburn 2. Dylan Hartley (co-captain) 3. Kyle Sinckler 4. Maro Itoje 5. George Kruis 6. Brad Shields 7. Tom Curry 8. Mark Wilson
Replacements:
16. Jamie George 17. Ben Moon 18. Harry Williams 19. Charlie Ewels 20. Zach Mercer 21. Danny Care 22. George Ford 23. Manu Tuilagi
Information from Reuters contributed to this report