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Rugby

19th Mar 2015

Lancaster makes one change for France and puts faith in backline to win back championship

Geoff Parling is the only new face in the side to face France

Neil Treacy

Lancaster’s backing his young guns to do the job against France.

The English head-coach has made just one change for this Saturday’s championship decider at Twickenham, but has crucially stuck with his young backline , and in particular Luther Burrell, who came under some criticism for failing to pass in a two v one situation against Scotland.

However, Burrell keeps his place in the unchanged backline, with the average just 24.

In the pack, Geoff Parling is the only change, as he comes into the second row in favour of Dave Attwood, who is dropped from the squad entirely.

It now means that England will finish the tournament with neither of the second rows from their opener against Wales even on the bench, after Courtney Lawes displaced George Kruis for last week’s game against Scotland.

With Parling promoted from the bench and Attwood dropped, it means that Nick Easter will return to the subs, after missing last week with injury.

England: M Brown (Harlequins); A Watson (Bath), J Joseph (Bath), L Burrell (Northampton), J Nowell (Exeter); G Ford (Bath), B Youngs (Leicester); J Marler (Harlequins), D Hartley (Northampton), D Cole (Leicester), G Parling (Leicester), C Lawes (Northampton), J Haskell (Wasps), C Robshaw (Harlequins, capt), B Vunipola (Saracens).

Replacements: T Youngs (Leicester), M Vunipola (Saracens), K Brookes (Newcastle), N Easter (Harlequins), T Wood (Northampton), R Wigglesworth (Saracens), D Cipriani (Sale), B Twelvetrees (Gloucester).