George North could make his Wales return from the bench as coach Warren Gatland named an unchanged starting lineup for their Six Nations clash against England at Twickenham.

North has been out with a knee injury since October and proved his fitness after playing the full 80 minutes of Northampton’s Anglo-Welsh Cup win against Harlequins.

The 25-year old takes the place of Owen Watkin on the bench in the only change to Wales’ match-day squad.

‘It’s great to name an unchanged starting XV, the players deserve that for a very good performance on the opening weekend,’ said Gatland, referring to their 34-7 win against Scotland in Cardiff.

‘We have made one change on the bench, with George coming in for Owen [Watkin], which is tough on Owen but Josh [Adams] picked up a slight hip strain last weekend so George provides us with a bit more cover there.

‘England have been in great form the past couple of years so we know the challenge we face, but we have had a good couple of weeks in camp and are looking forward to going up to Twickenham.’

Wales – 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Josh Adams, 13 Scott Williams, 12 Hadleigh Parkes, 11 Steff Evans, 10 Rhys Patchell, 9 Gareth Davies, 8 Ross Moriarty, 7 Josh Navidi, 6 Aaron Shingler, 5 Alun Wyn Jones (c), 4 Cory Hill, 3 Samson Lee, 2 Ken Owens, 1 Rob Evans.
Subs: 16 Elliot Dee, 17 Wyn Jones, 18 Tomas Francis, 19 Bradley Davies, 20 Justin Tipuric, 21 Aled Davies, 22 Gareth Anscombe, 23 George North.

Photo: Fiona Goodall/Getty Images