Six Nations Scotland v England preview with Lewis Moody

England travel up to Scotland this weekend under the charge of interim boss Stuart Lancaster. He has named three uncapped players in his first England XV.

As expected Saracens pairing Brad Barritt and Owen Farrell will line up in the centres, however with their regular roles reversed, Barritt at outside and Farrell wearing No. 12.

The other fresh face comes in the back row with Northampton Saints’ Phil Dowson pipping Scarlets rookie Ben Morgan to the No. 8 jersey.

Charlie Hodgson and David Strettle return for their first starts since a clash with New Zealand back in 2008 while Mouriz Botha and Chris Robshaw, at skipper, will win just their second caps.

One man who knows what it takes to captain the England team is Bath Rugby’s Lewis Moody, who has just retured from the international scene: “It’s something he is going to relish. He has done it for many years for his club and I think he has been playing some fantastic rugby over the last couple of seasons. He just needs to take the confidence and ability he has and lead by example. He’ll have a great day, I hope”

Scotland also have a couple of new faces in their team in the shape of Lee Jones on the wing and David Denton in the back-row.

Simon Taylor is a former Scotland forward and a team mate of Lewis Moody at Bath Rugby: “I think with it being the first game of the Six Nations there’s almost more anticipation…there is an extra bit of excitement and both teams  are making new starts after the world cup,  maybe England even more so. So there is a bit of the unknown going into it as well”