England

Leicester's Watson replaces the injured Ollie Hassell-Collins on the wing in the only change to the starting XV that beat Italy in round two.

Vice-captain Courtney Lawes is set for his first England appearance since July having been named on the bench.

Ben Curry is also a replacement after being called into the squad when brother Tom was injured.

With the experienced Jonny May and Jack Nowell left out of new head coach Steve Borthwick's original Six Nations squad, Hassell-Collins led the way for a new generation to shine.

Van der Merwe plundered his decisive second try in the 74th minute as Scotland came from behind to record a 29-23 victory in their Guinness Six Nations opener.

The marauding Lions wing had already brought Twickenham to its feet with a stunning first-half score that began in his own half and saw five would-be tacklers beaten by his speed, strength and footwork.

While a magnificent solo score, it exposed a failing in England’s defence that was a recurring theme in the afternoon’s main indicator of a team playing under a new regime for the first time.

Scotland twice led in the first half with a try by Huw Jones and a spectacular 60-metre effort by Van der Merwe but England hit back with two for recalled winger Max Malins then edged 13-12 ahead at halftime with a penalty by Owen Farrell.

Reuters reports tries for Ellis Genge and Ben White and a penalty apiece kept it as a one-point game until Van der Merwe finished off a lovely move three minutes from the end.

With the prize for both teams being a place in the final, the Silver Ferns weathered a tenacious third-quarter comeback from the Roses with an impressive response in the run to the final whistle.

RNZ reports New Zealand was up by six goals at half time, but England were ahead by one early in the final stanza, before the Ferns took control again.

Messi, along with his Paris St Germain team mate Kylian Mbappe and Manchester City's Erling Haaland, were among the 14 players shortlisted for The Best FIFA Men's Player award.

The trio are joined by last year's winner Robert Lewandowski of Barcelona, Manchester City playmaker Kevin De Bruyne, Liverpool's Mohamed Salah and PSG's Neymar and Achraf Hakimi.

Real Madrid's Karim Benzema, who won the 2022 Ballon d'Or award, is also in the shortlist.

Evans, who coaches at Premiership club Harlequins, comes into a new coaching set-up after Steve Borthwick was named Eddie Jones' successor in December.

BBC reports Martin Gleeson had held the attack position under Jones and no update has been given on his future with England.

"Nick brings with him a wealth of different experiences as a player and coach," Borthwick said.

"We'd particularly like to thank Harlequins for their support in allowing Nick to work with us during this period. It's a great example of club and country working together."

The 43-year-old, who worked under Jones with Japan and later England, was the strong favourite to take up the position after the Australian's sacking and leaves his role as head coach of Premiership club Leicester Tigers.

"I'm deeply honoured to be appointed England head coach and I am very excited by the challenge," said Borthwick, who has signed a five-year contract with the RFU.

"The English game is full of talent and I want to build a winning team which makes the most of our huge potential and inspires young people to fall in love with rugby union the way I did."

A peak five-minute audience of 21.31 million people tuned in to ITV (and +1) to watch the end of the World Cup 2022 quarter-final match on Saturday.

England crashed out of the tournament after losing 2-1 to France.

Some people may have watched on other services such as ITVX, which are not reflected in the Barb rating figures.

The five-minute peak of 21.31 million was the most-watched single channel TV moment of 2022 so far.

In a historic occasion the two nations kicked off against each other in a World Cup match for the first time in forty years, with their last meeting coming at Spain 1982.

Early in the first half, France opened the scoring through a spectacular long shot from Aurelien Tchouameni in the 17th minute.

France winger Ousmane Dembele received the ball from Kylian Mbappe before laying it off deep to the Tchouameni who smashed long shot into the bottom left corner past Jordan Pickford.

Substitute Chloe Kelly poked home a loose ball from a corner to send the raucous record crowd of 87,192 into a frenzy with ten minutes of extra time remaining.

She waited for confirmation of the goal before taking off her shirt and waving it around her head, while being lifted by her team-mates in a moment of pure elation.

On a monumental day in English football history, Sarina Wiegman's side showed they were equal to anything a strong and physical Germany team threw at them.