England have named their team to face Australia in the second test with two changes from the team that lost last weekend in Perth.
Leicester Tigers scrum-half Ben Youngs and Northampton Saints lock Courtney Lawes will make their first starts for England in the match in Sydney.
Youngs comes in for Danny Care, while Lawes comes into the second row in place of the Simon Shaw. England boss Martin Johnson has chosen to keep Jonny Wilkinson on the bench by starting Toby Flood.
England’s world cup winning centre Mike Tindall has recovered from a dead leg to be named at outside centre while 2007 world cup finalist Mathew Tait drops out of the squad completely.
Scrum half Youngs impressed when he came off the bench last weekend as England started to make ground on Australia.
“This is a great opportunity for Ben, who has been with us since the middle of the Six Nations – the same for Courtney,” Johnson told the BBC.
“Ben brings something different to Danny but it is not a reflection on Danny’s performance. It is just an opportunity to get Ben on the field.
“It is a tough call on Danny, who has not done anything particularly wrong. Simon Shaw certainly hasn’t done anything wrong but Courtney Lawes has really stepped up in the last few weeks since we have been together.
“He is very athletic and gets around the field and is very aggressive.”
Johnson said that he had been tempted to start Wilkinson ahead of Flood and added: “There is always a rationale for playing Jonny but we are happy with what we have got with Toby.
“We can’t give them that many shots. They are a good team and they will get something on us but we made it too easy for them last week.”
England
15 Ben Foden (Northampton Saints) , 14 Mark Cueto (Sale Sharks) , 13 Mike Tindall (Gloucester Rugby) , 12 Shontayne Hape (Bath Rugby) , 11 Chris Ashton (Northampton Saints) , 10 Toby Flood (Leicester Tigers) , 9 Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers) , 1 Tim Payne (London Wasps) , 2 Steve Thompson (CA Brive) , 3 Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers) , 4 Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints) , 5 Tom Palmer (Stade Francais) , 6 Tom Croft (Leicester Tigers) , 7 Lewis Moody (Leicester Tigers) CAPTAIN , 8 Nick Easter (Harlequins)
Replacements: 16 George Chuter (Leicester Tigers) , 17 David Wilson (Bath Rugby) , 18 Simon Shaw (London Wasps) , 19 James Haskell (Stade Francais) , 20 Danny Care (Harlequins) , 21 Jonny Wilkinson (RC Toulon) , 22 Delon Armitage (London Irish)
This Test could go either way, I think England smelt blood when they dominated the Wallabie scrum and forced 2 penalty tries.
Mmmm…I sort of feel a Bafana Bafana moment coming on here…..All excited then the crushing defeat!! 🙁
I like the name…”2nd wallabie Test”
Slowly now Blue Bird – we know how good England are penalty shoot-outs!
@ Blue Bird: If they’re clever they’ll play Barrett and not put him on the bench, he doesnt skrik for Aussies, in fact he might create some opportunities in the middle, which have sadly been lacking up to now.
I read this morning that Barrit had been flown out to join the team, so how come he is not on the team sheet, he is to good a player to get splinters on his bum.
Johnson is a Xenophobe probably. Jokes aside I thought once he got into the mix, he’d get a game, maybe they’ll bring him on.
hmm….I see he isnt even on the bench!!
hell….this site is quiet lately!!
I’ve just done a SA vs Aussie 1964…600 not out.
Agreed 4Man,not sure what is going on lately..
9@ 4man:
11@ Winston:
Hey, the freegin Soccer World Cup is on… IN SA… what did you expect… biting each other like in other futtap sites???
There’s no problem, the daily visitors here have actually grown according to the page impressions that R-T generates… just chill and blog like mad…. hehehe
Gbs,I think with Puma being missing in action with no internet has also slowed things down a bit. But for some reason it does seem a bit slower lately. But I’ll do everything in my power to pick up the hits on the site 🙂
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