Cowan-Dickie joins a bench that has reverted to a five-three split. Ben Curry is out and Ollie Sleightholme comes in. Harry Randall and George Ford remain the deputy half-backs.
Eyes are drawn immediately to the apparent switch in England’s midfield. Slade will wear 12 on Saturday, with Lawrence in the 13 jersey he usually dons for Bath.
In truth, those two have been fluid, with Slade usually attacking from inside centre as a traditional distributor. He stood at first receiver and struck a kick-pass to Tommy Freeman directly from a scrum on Saturday against New Zealand, for instance.
In defence, however, Slade has shifted one wider to lead England’s line-speed. Despite being whisked back to the Test arena on the back of 50 minutes for Exeter Chiefs following shoulder surgery, he was robust in that channel.
The All Blacks challenged the connection between Slade and his wings, too, forcing Immanuel Feyi-Waboso and George Furbank to be decisive on the edge. Generally, England were solid.
Lawrence defends at 12 for England and is developing into an industrious and tough operator in that regard.
In attack, he cuts bustling, out-to-in angles from strike moves, but he is more suited to that responsibility than Slade.
Clunky back play has left Lawrence peripheral
Otherwise, England have endeavoured to post him in wider positions. They are just not doing a good job of getting the ball to him. When the set-piece did function on Saturday, their back play was clunky and uncertain.
Lawrence registered only two carries against New Zealand, and not a single one after the 11th minute. That is an awful waste of one of their most dynamic runners.
Indeed, as statistician Russ Petty has outlined, Lawrence has totalled 11 carries across his past three Tests. George Martin has made 22 in the same period.
That is a stark demonstration of how England are struggling to bring Lawrence into games. Freeman was similarly peripheral against the All Blacks, registering just four carries. Slade himself had three.
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