This season the oldest rugby tournament in the world contains more sub-plots than a Stieg Larsson book.

The England team, under interim head coach Stuart Lancaster, has a South African hue to it, with lock Mouritz Botha making a second test start and prop Matt Stevens included on the bench.

Lancaster knows that, unless he somehow turns the dwarf-throwing, ferry-leaping, binge-drinking England team into grand slam winners, he will not receive a permanent appointment.

Former Springbok and Italian coach Nick Mallett is waiting in the wings to take over at Twickenham to add even more South African flavour to the Roses when this campaign has run its course.

No one expects Lancaster's England to win the grand slam, and perhaps for the first time in decades they travel to Murrayfield as underdogs.

Barritt's selection has been a long time coming, but he finds himself making his England debut at a difficult time for English rugby.

The situation is so unsettled in camp England that their new captain, Chris Robshaw, is playing only his second test, while the entire team has a collective 236 caps - less than Scotland's pack.

Although 25-year-old Barritt will wear the unfamiliar No13 jersey where he will play alongside Saracens teammate Owen Farrell, who is also on debut, he will spend a lot of time at his preferred inside centre. And when he looks towards the flyhalf channel, he will see 31-year-old veteran Charlie Hodgson, who is making his first test start in four years. Hodgson is also the most capped player in the team with 36 appearances.

In all, there are seven uncapped players in Lancaster's squad, which indicates that, after the World Cup debacle that ended in quarterfinal defeat against France, the dead wood and trouble-makers have been banished. In January World Cup squad members Delon Armitage and Danny Care were axed for alleged assault and drunk-driving respectively.

Clearly Lancaster has taken a no-nonsense approach and his squad has an interesting freshness, but also a look of fragility about it.

Across the Irish Sea, there is some concern for Ireland coach Declan Kidney in that talismanic skipper and centre Brian O'Driscoll will miss the entire tournament through injury.

Since making his Six Nations debut in 2000, O'Driscoll has appeared in every campaign and only missed five championship matches in 12 seasons.

British & Irish Lions utility back Keith Earls will don the No13 jersey against Wales in Dublin on Sunday, in what is a repeat of the 2011 World Cup quarterfinal. New France coach Phillipe Saint-Andre has stuck largely with the players that took Les Bleus to the World Cup final, although he has done away with the experiment of playing Morgan Parra at flyhalf.

Francois Trinh-Duc will start in the No10 jersey when the team takes on Italy in Paris tomorrow.