England v France: Teams
England boss Martin Johnson has backed Toby Flood to shine in the No.12 shirt against France.
Last Updated: 07/10/11 4:10am
England boss Martin Johnson has backed Toby Flood to shine in the No.12 shirt in the RWC quarter-final against France.
Flood is more used to playing at fly-half, however he has been called into action at inside centre due to injury concerns over Mike Tindall.
Flood will play alongside Jonny Wilkinson as a second playmaker - with Johnson also naming Mark Cueto, Tom Palmer and Nick Easter in his starting XV.
And Johnson is pleased with the look of his team for 'Le Crunch'.
"I just think it's where we are now and what we need to do on the field. Toby's always had that option, he trains there a lot and has been used at the end of games like last week," he said.
"We know what Toby does and we're happy that he'll produce his game and Jonny will produce his. We've got a right and left and Mark's (Cueto) left foot too. The good thing about our guys is they're pretty consistent. It's not, will he play well, it's he'll bring what he brings.
"We might have to do things slightly differently and you adapt to that. There are different ways of getting go-forward so you pick your players according to what you want to do."
Satisfaction
France hooker William Servat is adamant his side can bounce back from their Tonga debacle.
France suffered a shock 19-14 reverse against the South Sea islanders, but Servat insists that there were plenty of reasons to be encouraged by from the earlier wins over Japan and Canada.
Servat said: "In the first two games we did score 40 points against two teams that were not that bad. And we did get a bit of satisfaction out of it.
"Against the All Blacks we lost, but everyone seemed to have known what to expect - us too perhaps, unconsciously.
"We clearly missed the point against Tonga, but during this week's training I enjoyed myself."
France have made two changes to their line-up for the clash with Nicolas Mas and Imanol Harinordoquy named in the side.
Mas replaces Luc Ducalcon in the front row after missing the Tonga loss due to a hamstring strain, while No.8 Harinordoquy has been promoted from the bench to replace Raphael Lakafia.
England: 15 Ben Foden, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Manu Tuilagi, 12 Toby Flood, 11 Mark Cueto, 10 Jonny Wilkinson, 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Nick Easter, 7 Lewis Moody (capt), 6 Tom Croft, 5 Tom Palmer, 4 Louis Deacon, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Steve Thompson, 1 Matt Stevens.
Replacements: 16 Dylan Hartley, 17 Alex Corbisiero, 18 Courtney Lawes, 19 Simon Shaw, 20 James Haskell, 21 Richard Wigglesworth, 22 Matt Banahan.
France: 15 Maxime Médard, 14 Vincent Clerc, 13 Aurélien Rougerie, 12 Maxime Mermoz, 11 Alexis Palisson, 10 Morgan Parra, 9 Dimitri Yachvili, 8 Imanol Harinordoquy, 7 Julien Bonnaire, 6 Thierry Dusautoir (capt), 5 Lionel Nallet, 4 Pascal Pape, 3 Nicolas Mas, 2 William Servat, 1 Jean-Baptiste Poux.
Replacements: 16 Dimitri Szarzewski, 17 Fabien Barcella, 18 Julien Pierre, 19 Louis Picamoles, 20 Francois Trinh-Duc, 21 David Marty, 22 Cedric Heymans.
