England wing it with Armitage
England sprang a surprise by dropping hat-trick hero Mark Cueto on Thursday as they welcomed back hard man lock Courtney Lawes from suspension for their crunch World Cup match with arch-rivals Scotland.
Delon Armitage will start on the left wing for England as one of three changes for the Pool B decider at Eden Park on Saturday.
The London Irish back, who has scored two tries in his last four England games, replaces Cueto.
Team manager Martin Johnson’s other two changes see the Northampton Saints lock, Lawes, restored to the second row after a two-game ban and Saracens prop Matt Stevens returns at loosehead.
Lawes and Stevens replace Stade Français lock Tom Palmer and London Irish prop Alex Corbisiero, respectively.
Chris Ashton, who tops the World Cup 2011 try-scoring charts with five, is one of five players starting their fourth game of the tournament, alongside Northampton Saints teammate Ben Foden, Leicester Tigers pair Manu Tuilagi and Dan Cole and Ricoh Black Rams No.8 James Haskell.
Bath flank Lewis Moody again captains the side on the occasion of his 70th cap and flyhalf Jonny Wilkinson will make his 90th Test appearance for England. Wilkinson was preferred again to Toby Flood at No.10.
“Delon has played very well. We’re very comfortable with him playing there and Mark has obviously had limited game time since he’s been here, so another good week of training for him will be great,” said Johnson.
He added that Armitage, who was banned during England’s victorious Six Nations campaign for pushing a doping official and was then suspended again for punching in a Premiership game, had seized his chance to return to the team.
“I’ve said all the way through, if Delon’s playing well and he’s in form he’s a Test-match player,” Johnson said.
“He wasn’t available to us at the end of the Six Nations for various reasons and he’s come back from that and worked very hard all the way through.
“Obviously the injury with Mark has been a factor in that. He’s (Cueto) probably one game short of being right back to where he could be, so he will work as hard as he can this week to get himself there and hope to get another chance.”
The uncompromising Lawes is back after serving a two-match ban for kneeing Argentina hooker Mario Ledesma in the head during England’s hard-fought opening win in Dunedin a few weeks ago.
England are looking for a fourth straight victory which would ensure they reach the quarterfinals and a likely match-up with France, while Scotland need to win and deny England a bonus point.
“It’s knockout rugby. Let’s not worry about the points differences and all that,” Johnson said.
“We’ve got to win, they’ve got to win. It’s what World Cups are about. No one’s under any illusion about what it’s about.”
England: 15 Ben Foden, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Manu Tuilagi, 12 Mike Tindall, 11 Delon Armitage, 10 Jonny Wilkinson, 9 Ben Youngs, 8 James Haskell, 7 Lewis Moody (captain), 6 Tom Croft, 5 Courtney Lawes, 4 Louis Deacon, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Steve Thompson, 1 Matt Stevens.
Replacements: 16 Dylan Hartley, 17 Alex Corbisiero, 18 Tom Palmer, 19 Nick Easter, 20 Richard Wigglesworth, 21 Toby Flood, 22 Matt Banahan.
Date: Saturday, October 1
Venue: Eden Park, Auckland
Kick-off: 20.30 (07.30 GMT)
Referee: Craig Joubert (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Nigel Owens (Wales), Jérôme Garces (France)
TMO: Tim Hayes (Wales)
