Fin Smith will start at flyhalf for England at home to France, with Marcus Smith switching to fullback, as coach Steve Borthwick seeks to reignite his attack and get a win to revive his team's Six Nations campaign.

In the side named for Saturday's clash, there were two other changes as Ollie Sleightholme replaces injured wing Cadan Murley and, in a back-row shuffle, Tom Willis comes in at No.8 for his first start.

His Saracens teammate Ben Earl moves to his club position of openside flanker and Tom Curry remains at blindside.

Curry's brother Ben drops to the bench alongside former captain and hooker Jamie George, who missed last week's 27-22 Ireland defeat through injury, and utility back Elliot Daly.

It will be an eighth cap for Fin Smith but his first in the run-on team as his namesake Marcus ends a spell of eight starts at flyhalf.

While not as flamboyant as his namesake, Fin Smith is regarded as an excellent "enabler", with Borthwick hoping his distribution and eye for space can get England's midfield duo of Ollie Lawrence and Henry Slade firing more regularly.

Marcus Smith at fullback gives another attacking threat and with France not expected to send up the same number of contestable kicks as Ireland, Borthwick felt he did not need the extra security that Freddie Steward offers in the air.

"I think it's an exciting partnership," Borthwick said of his pair of Smiths. "We tried it in the second half of the Japan Test (in November) and again on Saturday in the second half. We've trained that combination together a multiple number of times."

England go into the match having lost seven games in a row against tier-one opposition - their only wins in their last nine both coming versus Japan - matching their worst previous streaks in 2006 and from 1904-06.

The teams' last Twickenham meeting was in the 2023 Six Nations when France romped to a 53-10 victory - England's heaviest home defeat.

For France, incoming flyhalf Matthieu Jalibert has been forgiven while out-going flyhalf Romain Ntamack has apologised for his red-card tackle.

Jalibert will start in his first Test appearance since he grabbed headlines and disappointed coach Fabien Galthie when he left the squad in mid-November because he wasn't picked for the match against New Zealand.

He replaced the suspended Ntamack on Thursday and wins his 35th cap alongside star scrumhalf Antoine Dupont.

Ntamack was red-carded in the 43-0 win against Wales last Friday after he shoulder-charged the head of opposite Ben Thomas. A three-game suspension on Wednesday prevents him from facing only England in the Six Nations.