England coach Stuart Lancaster has made five changes to his team’s starting line-up for the second Test against New Zealand in Dunedin on Saturday.
Lancaster called in some backline reinforcements for the must-win encounter at the indoor stadium.
With his entire squad now available, Lancaster selected the backline combination that England used in the Six Nations over the supposedly “second string” line-up that pushed the All Blacks close in a 15-20 defeat in the first Test last week.
He recalled centres Billy Twelvetrees and Luther Burrell, pivot Owen Farrell and scrumhalf Danny Care, as well as naming Tom Wood at blindside flank in place of James Haskell.
Manusamoa Tuilagi switches from the centre to right wing, with Marland Yarde moving to the left wing to accommodate him.
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Dylan Hartley, Courtney Lawes, Chris Ashton and Billy Vunipola are named on the replacements bench, while Kieran Brookes comes into the match-day squad for the first time.
Lancaster said the strong showing last week – when players who were involved in the Premiership Final were not available – meant picking a team for the second Test in Dunedin was always going to be difficult.
“It’s been evident in training all along just how intense competition for places is but especially now we have the guys who arrived at the end of last week,” he said.
“We knew selection for this Test was always going to be tough, with the players who played at Eden Park putting their hands up and those who watched from the stands.”
England need to win on Saturday to keep the three-Test series alive.
“I am sure it will be a fantastic occasion in Dunedin and we are really looking forward to challenging ourselves against the All Blacks,” the England mentor said.
“With the Crusaders game coming up around the corner and the third Test in Hamilton, all our squad will get opportunities which will be great experience as we continue to develop our depth in the build up to the World Cup.”
England: 15 Mike Brown, 14 Manusamoa Tuilagi, 13 Luther Burrell, 12 Billy Twelvetrees, 11 Marland Yarde, 10 Owen Farrell, 9 Danny Care, 8 Ben Morgan, 7 Chris Robshaw (Captain), 6 Tom Wood, 5 Geoff Parling, 4 Joe Launchbury, 3 David Wilson, 2 Rob Webber, 1 Joe Marler
Replacements: 16 Dylan Hartley, 17 Matt Mullan, 18 Kieran Brookes, 19 Courtney Lawes, 20 Billy Vunipola, 21 Ben Youngs, 22 Freddie Burns, 23 Chris Ashton.
Date: Saturday 14 June
Venue: Forsyth Barr Stadium, Dunedin
Kick-Off: 09:35 SA Time (19:35 NZ Time, 08:35 BST, 07:35 GMT)
Referee: Jaco Peyper (South Africa)
Assistant Referees: Nigel Owens (Wales), Jérôme Garcès (France)
TMO: George Ayoub (Australia)
Can England run the All Blacks close again or beat them?
I doubt it!
Also don’t think they have any chance
@ grootblousmile:
No chance.
Sky News yesterday was saying that if he moves Tuilagi to the wing in an attempt to reunite Twelvetres & Burrel in the centre he’ll be throwing away any chance of victory.
Tuilagi was quite good last week. Twelvetrees is a TOTALLY different typ of player, and in all honesty I can’t see him being half as effective as Tuilagi at reaking the NZ defensive line.
AB’s by >12.
On paper a stronger England team than last week especially the bench. Hats off to Stuart Lancaster who rewarded almost the whole starting pack that did so well last week, must have been tempting to bring some of the big names back up front straight into the starting lineup
It was speculated about earlier in the week but still odd to see Tuilagi shifted out to wing his strong running means it often takes more than one tackler to get him down and this can make gaps for the others to exploit. But Twelvtrees is fast and distibutes well and could bring Burrell into the game more. Burrell is another strong player and just about the best ‘newcomer’ in the backline have seen this season.
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