RWC 2015: England drop Sam Burgess for must-win Australia clash as Jonathan Joseph returns
Stuart Lancaster makes changes but retains faith in Owen Farrell at fly-half
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Your support makes all the difference.England coach Stuart Lancaster has named his team to play Australia in the must-win Rugby World Cup clash at Twickenham on Saturday, with Jonathan Joseph returning and Sam Burgess dropped.
Joseph has recovered sooner than initially expected from a chest injury which kept him of the 28-25 defeat to Wales last weekend. Burgess, a cross-code convert, replaced the centre's and saw his performance roundly criticised in the media's post-mortems.
Despite the loss, Owen Farrell retains his place at fly-half and George Ford continues on the bench. Ben Morgan returns at number eight and Joe Launchbury is set to start his first World Cup match in the second row.
The game is set to decide England's future at the tournament, as they could yet become the first host nation to exit at the group stage of a Rugby World Cup. If Wales beat Fiji on Thursday, Lancaster's side will have to emerge victorious against the Wallabies in order to stay in the competition.
England: 1 Joe Marler, 2 Tom Youngs, 3 Dan Cole, 4 Joe Launchbury, 5 Geoff Parling, 6 Tom Wood, 7 Chris Robshaw (captain), 8 Ben Morgan, 9 Ben Youngs, 10 Owen Farrell, 11 Jonny May, 12 Brad Barritt, 13 Jonathan Joseph, 14 Anthony Watson, 15 Mike Brown.
Replacements: 16 Rob Webber, 17 Mako Vunipola, 18 Kieran Brookes, 19 George Kruis, 20 Nick Easter, 21 Richard Wigglesworth, 22 George Ford, 23 Sam Burgess
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