Tom Wood to captain England against France

Saints star Tom Wood will captain England in their World Cup warm-up match against France at Twickenham on Saturday.

In the centres, Exeter Chiefs’ Henry Slade joins fellow debutant Sam Burgess, who makes his first England start since swapping rugby codes to join Bath from NRL champions, the South Sydney Rabbitohs.

Lancaster has already indicated he will field a strong team against France at Twickenham while also examining some fringe contenders for his final 31-man World Cup squad, which must be submitted by August 31.

The feeling persists that Lancaster will spring a surprise when he names his final World Cup squad, even if the options for a bolter to be included in the 31 are narrowing.

“And obvious there’s the physical nature of backlines and you need to look at that element, particularly defensively”.

“He (Burgess) is up against two other good players as well, but it’s actually about what’s right for the team”.

“If you were playing against New Zealand with Nonu and Savea lined up against you, or Kuridrani, Roberts or North, you need that balance”.

“It’s an option for us to look at and it’ll be an interesting insight to see whether it goes well at the weekend or not”, he said.

“Tom has captained England for me before in Argentina and he did a great job”.

Rob Webber, out of form for Bath towards the end of last season but more experienced than Cowan-Dickie and the omitted Jamie George, gets his chance at hooker while George Kruis and Geoff Parling combine in the second row.

“The third and most important is to narrow down the selection decisions”.

“He’s training well. He’s confident, wants to play and as a effect we need to have a look at him”.

England: Goode; Watson, Slade, Burgess; May, Farrell, Wigglesworth; M Vunipola, Webber, Brookes; Kruis, Parling; Wood (c), Clark, Morgan.

Replacements: (16-23) L Cowan-Dickie (Exeter), A Corbisiero (Northampton), D Wilson (Bath), D Attwood (Bath), J Haskell (Wasps), D Care (Harlequins), D Cipriani (Sale), Billy Twelvetrees (Gloucester).