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Johnson makes two changes to England

Article Published: Thursday 17 June 2010

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England have named their team to face Australia in the second test with two changes from the team that lost last weekend in Perth.

Leicester Tigers scrum-half Ben Youngs and Northampton Saints lock Courtney Lawes will make their first starts for England in the match in Sydney.

Youngs comes in for Danny Care, while Lawes comes into the second row in place of the Simon Shaw. England boss Martin Johnson has chosen to keep Jonny Wilkinson on the bench by starting Toby Flood.

England's world cup winning centre Mike Tindall has recovered from a dead leg to be named at outside centre while 2007 world cup finalist Mathew Tait drops out of the squad completely.

Scrum half Youngs impressed when he came off the bench last weekend as England started to make ground on Australia.

"This is a great opportunity for Ben, who has been with us since the middle of the Six Nations - the same for Courtney," Johnson told the BBC.

"Ben brings something different to Danny but it is not a reflection on Danny's performance. It is just an opportunity to get Ben on the field.

"It is a tough call on Danny, who has not done anything particularly wrong. Simon Shaw certainly hasn't done anything wrong but Courtney Lawes has really stepped up in the last few weeks since we have been together.

"He is very athletic and gets around the field and is very aggressive."

Johnson said that he had been tempted to start Wilkinson ahead of Flood and added: "There is always a rationale for playing Jonny but we are happy with what we have got with Toby.

"We can't give them that many shots. They are a good team and they will get something on us but we made it too easy for them last week."

England

15 Ben Foden (Northampton Saints) , 14 Mark Cueto (Sale Sharks) , 13 Mike Tindall (Gloucester Rugby) , 12 Shontayne Hape (Bath Rugby) , 11 Chris Ashton (Northampton Saints) , 10 Toby Flood (Leicester Tigers) , 9 Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers) , 1 Tim Payne (London Wasps) , 2 Steve Thompson (CA Brive) , 3 Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers) , 4 Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints) , 5 Tom Palmer (Stade Francais) , 6 Tom Croft (Leicester Tigers) , 7 Lewis Moody (Leicester Tigers) CAPTAIN , 8 Nick Easter (Harlequins)

Replacements: 16 George Chuter (Leicester Tigers) , 17 David Wilson (Bath Rugby) , 18 Simon Shaw (London Wasps) , 19 James Haskell (Stade Francais) , 20 Danny Care (Harlequins) , 21 Jonny Wilkinson (RC Toulon) , 22 Delon Armitage (London Irish) ,

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