England boss shows some faith
England coach Stuart Lancaster has named a completely unchanged starting line-up for the crunch Six Nations clash with France in Paris on Sunday.
While the exact starting XV that did duty in the loss to Wales at Twickenham has been retained, Lancaster has made two changes to the bench with Tom Palmer replacing the injured Courtney Lawes and Saracens veteran Charlie Hodgson replacing Toby Flood.
The England boss said that although they had been disappointed by going down to Wales he thought that the combinations deserved another opportunity to prove themselves.
“We’ve had a good week following on from the Loughborough training camp and the players have been very positive and focused,” said Lancaster.
“We were really disappointed to lose to Wales but we took a lot out of the performance and felt it was right to pick the same starting team to go to Paris.
“It will be a massive challenge going to the Stade de France and playing against an experienced an unbeaten French side but we are excited about the opportunity and want to do the country proud.”
England: 15 Ben Foden, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Manu Tuilagi, 12 Brad Barritt, 11 David Strettle, 10 Owen Farrell, 9 Lee Dickson, 8 Ben Morgan, 7 Chris Robshaw (captain), 6 Tom Croft, 5 Geoff Parling, 4 Mouritz Botha, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Dylan Hartley, 1 Alex Corbisiero.
Replacements: 16 Rob Webber, 17 Matt Stevens, 18 Tom Palmer, 19 Phil Dowson, 20 Ben Youngs, 21 Charlie Hodgson, 22 Mike Brown.
Date: Sunday, March 11
Venue: Stade de France, Paris
Kick-off: 16.00 (15.00 GMT)
Referee: Alain Rolland (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Nigel Owens (Wales), John Lacey (Ireland)
TMO: Jim Yuille (Scotland)
