London (AFP) - Scott Barrett will return from injury to captain New Zealand against England at Twickenham on Saturday as the All Blacks continue their quest for a tour clean sweep of the Home Nations.

The lock missed last week’s hard-fought 25-17 win over Scotland at Murrayfield following a cut to his leg, that required a dozen stitches, suffered during the win, the weekend before, over Ireland in Chicago.

But Barrett has now been restored to the second row in the team announced by coach Scott Robertson on Thursday, and will partner Fabian Holland at lock as the All Blacks look to beef up their pack for what should be a bruising forward battle with England.

Robertson expects his team to be in for a tough time of it in front of a capacity crowd.

“Twickenham is one of the iconic venues in world rugby and there is nothing quite like hearing 80,000 fans singing ‘Swing Low’ to get the adrenaline pumping,” he said.

Barrett replaces the benched Josh Lord, with Simon Parker’s recall meaning back-row forward Wallace Sititi is also relegated to a position among the replacements.

Behind the scrum, Billy Proctor is at outside centre after Robertson had to reshuffle his back-line following the withdrawal of left wing Caleb Clarke because of the concussion he suffered at Murrayfield.

Clarke’s absence has led Robertson to move the powerful Leicester Fainga’anuku, who started at centre in Edinburgh, to the vacant left wing slot.

Anton Lienert-Brown will provide midfield cover for Proctor and starting inside centre Quinn Tupaea, although there is no place for the experienced Rieko Ioane in the match-day 23.

Beauden Barrett, Scott’s brother, remains at fly-half, with ‘supersub’ Damian McKenzie again among the replacements.

McKeenzie came off the bench to score a key try and a clinching penalty at Murrayfield last weekend after Scotland had fought back to 17-17 from 17-0 behind at half-time.

- ‘Epic clash’ -

New Zealand have won 36 of 46 Tests against England, with two draws and just eight defeats since their inaugural clash in 1905.

Victory on Saturday would leave the All Blacks just one win away from completing a grand slam ahead of next week’s encounter with a struggling Wales in Cardiff.

New Zealand have not lost to England since a dramatic 2019 World Cup semi-final defeat in Japan and beat them three times last year, but only by a combined margin of 10 points.

But England – who named their team on Tuesday – are on a nine-match winning streak against all opponents.

“Recent games against England have been incredibly close-fought and both teams are coming off a run of wins, so we are expecting an epic clash,” said Robertson.

New Zealand (15-1)

Will Jordan; Leroy Carter, Billy Proctor,  Quinn Tupaea, Leicester Fainga’anuku; Beauden Barrett,  Cam Roigard; Peter Lakai,  Ardie Savea, Simon Parker; Fabian Holland, Scott Barrett (capt), Fletcher Newell, Codie Taylor,  Ethan de Groot

Replacements: Samisoni Taukei’aho, Tamaiti Williams, Pasilio Tosi, Josh Lord, Wallace Sititi, Cortez Ratima, Anton Lienert-Brown, Damian McKenzie

Coach: Scott Robertson (NZL)