Captain Itoje returns to England XV to face Scotland

Captain Maro Itoje returns to the England starting XV for Saturday’s Six Nations match against Scotland in Edinburgh.

Itoje, who was on the bench for the 48-7 win against Wales, starts in the second row as one of two changes to the forward pack.

Luke Cowan-Dickie is at hooker with Jamie George, who led the side in Itoje’s absence last weekend, among the replacements.

In the one other change to England’s matchday squad from their opening win, fly-half Fin Smith comes on to the bench in place of namesake Marcus.

After four straight defeats from 2021 to 2024, England regained the Calcutta Cup with a narrow 16-15 victory last year in Twickenham.

Up until last weekend, Itoje had started every England Six Nations game since 2020.

However, he missed the start of their training camp in Girona to attend his mother Florence’s funeral in Nigeria and came on as a second-half replacement against Wales.

The British and Irish Lions skipper partners another Lion Ollie Chessum at lock, with Alex Coles on the bench.

England’s backline is unchanged, with Henry Arundell on the left wing after his first-half hat-trick last weekend, and Northampton pair Fraser Dingwall and Tommy Freeman in the midfield despite the availability of Ollie Lawrence.

Steward; Roebuck, Freeman, Dingwall, Arundell; Ford, Mitchell; Genge, Cowan-Dickie, Heyes, Chessum, Itoje, Pepper, Underhill, Earl.

England travel north on a run of 12 straight wins, while Scotland’s stuttering form from the autumn continued as they were edged out by Italy in Rome.

Pre-tournament favourites England and France both won at a canter in the opening round, meaning a final-day meeting between the sides in Paris looms large.

However, number eight Ben Earl insists England’s sole focus is on reversing a poor run of form in Scotland.

England have failed to win at Murrayfield for six years, their last victory coming in a 13-6 scrap in a storm in 2020.

“I promise you no-one is talking about Paris in our camp,” he told the Rugby Union Weekly podcast.

“No-one. We said in our huddle [after Wales]: ‘Well done, but we haven’t won at Murrayfield for years.’