Wilko and Flood set to unlock French defence

England coach Martin Johnson has opted to pick up where he left off against Scotland by selecting both Jonny Wilkinson and Toby Flood for the quarter-final with France at Eden Park on Saturday.

Flood came off the bench during England's 16-12 victory over the Scots to replace Mike Tindall in the centres and set up wing Chris Ashton's match-winning try.

After England's vice-captain failed to recover from a dead leg injury, Flood was drafted into the starting XV to wear the No.12 jersey in one of four changes to the team.

"Mike took a lot of bangs last week (against Scotland) and he has been sore all week," Johnson said.

"He finally got back to full training, although he did not go full out. He has not been available to us this week.

"That was part of the equation and with Toby playing well, we have options."

It is not the first time that Wilkinson and Flood have played together. Most notably the duo finished the Rugby World Cup 2007 final together after Flood had come off the bench to replace Mike Catt.

Exciting combination

It is possible Flood could take over from Wilkinson as England's primary place kicker.
Wilkinson has landed only 45 per cent of his kicks, while Flood has been successful with 10 of his 13.

"You look at it as a group and Toby will bring something different than others in that position," Johnson said.

"But it is an exciting combination for us. It gives us Toby's kicking game and his passing game. He has been playing well.

"Jonny has had a lot of long kicks and going into a game like this you do not want to be playing against Jonny Wilkinson."

In the forwards, Nick Easter comes in for James Haskell at number 8, while Tom Palmer takes over from Courtney Lawes at second row. Behind the scrum, Mark Cueto replaces the suspended Delon Armitage on the wing.

"He brings a lot of experience there at that position, number 8," Johnson said. "He brings a good degree of game control and it is one of the toughest calls on James.

"He has played well for us. It was a tough call. But Nick is the right guy to start, with James on the bench."

Bruising encounters

Haskell and Lawes drop on to a bench that features five forwards, along with scrum half Richard Wigglesworth and centre-cum-wing Matt Banahan.

With England-France matches traditionally bruising encounters, Johnson has little doubt his use of the reserves will play an important part in deciding the result.

"It is do or die and it is a World Cup quarter-final and there is no holding yourself back," he said.

"We have five forwards on the bench and I think it will be that type of game."

England go into the match with four wins from four pool matches. France, by contrast, are struggling for form after defeats by New Zealand and Tonga.

"They will come to play, no doubt about that," Johnson said. "They are very, very dangerous and more so when they are written off, when they have nothing to lose.

"We have to get tempo into the game. We did not do it last week. We let Scotland get the initiative early on.

"We really need to be just a little better in the first 20 minutes and give ourselves a platform to go on from."