Saints duo to start for England in France
Saints duo Courtney Lawes and Luther Burrell will start for England in Saturday’s World Cup warm-up match against France in Paris (kick-off 8pm).
But Tom Wood, Calum Clark, Kieran Brookes and Alex Corbisiero, who has been suffering from sciatic pain, miss out.
Those four men all played their part in last weekend’s 19-14 victory against the same opposition at Twickenham, with Wood skippering the Red Rose and Clark making his Test debut.
But head coach Stuart Lancaster now wants to take a look at another set of players as he continues to assess his squad ahead of naming the final 31-man group at the end of this month.
Burrell, who scored in Paris on his England debut last February, has been challenged to impress, following good displays from centre duo Henry Slade and Sam Burgess last weekend.
But Lawes is more certain of his place, with the Saints star, injury permitting, likely to be in England’s first 15 for the opening World Cup match against Fiji on September 18.
England: Brown; Nowell, Joseph, Burrell, May; Ford, B Youngs; Marler, T Youngs, Cole; Lawes, Launchbury; Haskell, Robshaw (c), B Vunipola.
Replacements: George, M Vunipola, Wilson, Attwood, Easter, Care, Cipriani, Twelvetrees.