England Name Unchanged Team
England team manager Martin Johnson has named an unchanged starting line-up for Saturday’s RBS 6 Nations showdown with Ireland at Twickenham.
The only changes to the English matchday 22 are on the replacements bench where Lee Mears, Joe Worsley and Ben Foden take over from Steve Thompson, Steffon Armitage and Matt Mullan respectively.
England team manager Martin Johnson has kept faith with the fifteen players that started the 17-12 victory over Italy in Rome last time out.
Commenting on the changes to his bench, Johnson said: “Lee is back in good form after his injury and he gives us something a bit different off the bench with his ball-handling and his dynamism.
“Ben Foden is back on the bench. We made a specific call for the Italy game with three front rowers.
“That limits your options a bit and I said to Ben after the game last week it would have been nice to have him come on for the last 10 minutes against Italy.
“It’s good to have him back on the bench.”
Both England and Ireland are looking to bounce back from poor performances in their last outings, as Johnson acknowledged.
“Ireland are coming off a tough loss in a difficult place to play. They will want to bounce back and put a good performance in – but so do we.
“We want to improve on last week. We are not replaying that game, this is a new game and we need to approach it that way.”
ENGLAND Team & Replacements (v Ireland, RBS 6 Nations Championship, Twickenham, Saturday, February 27, kick-off 4pm):
15 – Delon Armitage (London Irish)
14 – Mark Cueto (Sale Sharks)
13 – Mathew Tait (Sale Sharks)
12 – Riki Flutey (Brive)
11 – Ugo Monye (Harlequins)
10 – Jonny Wilkinson (Toulon)
9 – Danny Care (Harlequins)
1 – Tim Payne (London Wasps)
2 – Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints)
3 – Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers)
4 – Simon Shaw (London Wasps)
5 – Steve Borthwick (Saracens) (capt)
6 – James Haskell (Stade Francais)
7 – Lewis Moody (Leicester Tigers)
8 – Nick Easter (Harlequins)
Replacements:
16 – Lee Mears (Bath)
17 – David Wilson (Bath)
18 – Louis Deacon (Leicester Tigers)
19 – Joe Worsley (London Wasps)
20 – Paul Hodgson (London Irish)
21 – Toby Flood (Leicester Tigers)
22 – Ben Foden (Northampton Saints)