Shaun Wane has made just two changes to his England line-up to take on Australia this afternoon at Headingley.
England have lost the opening two Tests and need a win today to prevent the Kangaroos returning Down Under with a 3-0 whitewash victory in the Northern Hemisphere.
Despite that, Wane has kept changes to a minimum with the only changes coming in the outside backs. Dom Young and Jake Wardle drop out of the fold through injury, as revealed on Thursday when the squads were released, while Joe Burgess and Harry Newman come into the fold.
Burgess will make his first appearance for England in a decade, while Newman will be making his first outing of the series, too.
George Williams and Harry Smith start in the halves together for the second time in a row, with Mikey Lewis set to come off the bench. Wane was heavily criticised for the lack of game time Lewis was given in the second Test in Liverpool, but the head coach has suggested that he could play a bigger role at Headingley.
Owen Trout misses out again with the Leigh man being named as 18th man, while Alex Walmsley, Morgan Smithies and Mikolaj Oledzki make up the bench.
Daryl Clark misses out once more, too, despite being the only man to score an England try this series.
England v Australia line-ups
England: AJ Brimson; Joe Burgess, Herbie Farnworth, Harry Newman, Tom Johnstone; George Williams, Harry Smith; Mike McMeeken, Jez Litten, Matty Lees; Kallum Watkins, Kai Pearce-Paul; Morgan Knowles.
Bench: Mikey Lewis, Alex Walmsley, Morgan Smithies, Mikolaj Oledzki.
Australia (confirmed earlier this week): Reece Walsh, Mark Nawaqanitawse, Kotoni Staggs, Gehamat Shibasaki, Josh Addo-Carr; Cameron Munster, Nathan Cleary; Patrick Carrigan, Harry Grant, Tino Fa’asuamaleaui; Angus Crichton, Hudson Young; Isaah Yeo.
Bench: Tom Dearden, Lindsay Collins, Reuben Cotter, Keaon Kolomatangi.
Anonymous
November 8, 2025 at 4:00 pm
The only English players who are any good are the English players who play in Australia, the rest of them couldn’t get into Australia reserve teams. Lewis is being shown up for what he is ; slow to defend ad doesn’t have clue how to read a game or pass the ball. And the whole lot of them led by a coach who is more clueless than the players. If English RL continues like this without professional radical reform it will be dead and buried in ten years.