Saracens fly-half Owen Farrell will start for England in place of the injured Toby Flood against New Zealand at Twickenham on Saturday.
Farrell is the only change to the starting XV, with Northampton lock Courtney Lawes coming onto the bench in place of Mouritz Botha and Gloucester fly-half Freddie Burns taking Farrell's place on the sidelines.
"We asked for a big response from the players after Australia and we got one last Saturday against South Africa, although ultimately we were denied. That frustration has been channelled this week and the whole squad has reacted with a determination to get a victory against the top team in the world," said England coach Stuart Lancaster.
"We are delighted that Courtney has got an opportunity. He has worked hard to get back in contention and what better game for him to make an impact.
"The same with Freddie Burns, who has had a great Premiership season so far, and we are looking forward to seeing him contribute should he get his chance."
More to follow...
England: 15 Alex Goode, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Manu Tuilagi, 12 Brad Barritt, 11 Mike Brown, 10 Owen Farrell, 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Ben Morgan, 7 Chris Robshaw (c), 6 Tom Wood, 5 Geoff Parling, 4 Joe Launchbury, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Tom Youngs, 1 Alex Corbisiero.
Replacements: 16 David Paice, 17 David Wilson, 18 Mako Vunipola, 19 Courtney Lawes 20 James Haskell, 21 Danny Care, 22 Freddie Burns, 23 Jonathan Joseph.
Date: Saturday, 1 December
Venue: Twickenham Stadium, London
Kick-off: 14:30 GMT
Referee: George Clancy (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Nigel Owens (Wales), Lourens van der Merwe (South Africa)
Television match official: Giulio De Santis (Italy)
Comments
rugby_rockstar says...
I feel there is an element of feather smoothing going on again with Lancaster picking Farrel over Burns, but the odds of an england win are slim to nothing so Freddie is probably better off out of it.
I'm also thinking of something radical for the 6 nations. Alex Goode at 10 and Toby Flood at 12. Alex can pass and he turns on a six pence. He's not really going to trouble ben foden as far as pace goes but with the lack of invention inthe midfield, get the guy involved. I don't see him as a 12 but Flood is and although he may take it as a slap in the face and a demotion, I still see him as having a strong influence on the england backline.
The botton line is that the current line up isn't firing and I think its the lack of skill from brad barritt thats stopping us scoring. He just another mike tindall. Only not as good at turning over ball... yep, he's worse than Mike Tindall. Lancaster has to be a manager and realise his job isn't to be liked and loved by the players. Which leads us back to owen farrel's inclusion, given his poor form this season.
On the plus side, something I haven't mentioned yet was that Mike Catt got his attacking aligment right vs SA. nicely done. The support play still isn't right, but that's a bread an butter skill that the clubs need to fix. but there is urgency when we have the ball, we do take the ball going forward and we're challenging the defence with our carrying rather than giving the defenders immobile targets to smash. we just need to dump the "rugby by numbers" and pass into space rather than 10 channel, 12 channel, thump. recycle, repeat repeat repeat.... "you know what? We need is a 12 that can pass an accurate ball over a 25m distance..." really? Shocker.
Posted 11:24 29th November 2012
Waz4before says...
Average of less than 14 caps for the England starting fifteen. Ouch.
Posted 11:05 29th November 2012
sirtidychris says...
The best team we can field against the all blacks given the lack of international experience for more attack minded guys like Burns and Twelvetrees. With the sarries axis of goode, farrell and barrit dictating how we play i expect to see very little created and strong defense, with almost every ball kicked playing a game of territorial pressure rugby that has defined Stuart lancasters era so far. This team will not beat the all blacks but hopefully if we can start to bring through people like burns and move away from the sarries (chargedown charlie) style and more towards a gloucester open style we may be getting somewhere in 2/3 years.
Posted 11:00 29th November 2012
benski says...
Ashton.... really? after such a shocker last week and also what on earth is Barritt doing in the mix for goodness sake bring in 12trees. Owen Farrell is going to have a hard time of it up against DC he still lacks in confidence in my opinion and DC will punish that.
Posted 10:55 29th November 2012
Danatthecorner says...
You could and I in fact would argue that of the bench, Lawes, Haskell, Care, Burns and Joseph should all be starting. Still I can see why Burns wasn't thrown to the lions on debut.
Posted 10:54 29th November 2012
jestnation says...
Mixed feelings as per usual....
Freddy should be in the 10 shirt on form but maybe this isn't the game to drop him in at the deep end.
Strangely this could be the ideal game for Farrell IF we get the Farrell we got in the Six Nations. Barring a total meltdown in the lineout for a second consecutive week we should acheive parity in the set pieces and get our fair share of possesion. What we won't do is get parity in the breakdown or collision areas.
As a result, much as I hate to say it, we're gonna need to kick 90% of possesion outside of the AB's 22 and nail our penalty kicks.
If we get the ice in the veins terminator of last season it's a great call. If we get the 2012/13 Farrell, we're screwed.
Posted 10:48 29th November 2012
Bones7 says...
'Saracens fly-half Owen Farrell will start for England in place of the injured Toby Flood' that's funny, you'd think he'd definitely start instead of Flood even if he was fit considering he's one of the best 4 players on the planet this season according to the IRB...
Posted 10:42 29th November 2012