ENGLAND coach Brian McDermott has named an unchanged line-up to take on France despite their opening-week defeat to Tonga.
It means he will run with the same spine of fullback AJ Brimson and halves George Williams and Harry Smith, keeping Jack Welsby on the bench and again leaving Mikey Lewis out altogether.
Morgan Knowles, who was initially named in the team to face Tonga before suffering an injury, has not recovered, so the pack remains the same with Ben Talty not picked, nor late squad call-up Kallum Watkins.
England must beat both France, back at Perth’s HBF Park on Saturday, then Papua New Guinea and hope other results go their way in order to qualify for the World Cup semi-finals.
Laurent Frayssinous’ French side suffered a 78-4 defeat at the hands of Samoa to open their campaign and the coach makes several changes.
Thomas Lacans will start in the halves alongside Théo Fages as César Rougé drops to the bench, while Amir Bourouh has been promoted to starting hooker, with captain Ben Garcia shifting to loose-forward.
Roméo Tropis comes in on the wing, with Guillermo Aispuro-Bichet moved out wide and Léo Darrélatour taken out.
Julian Bousquet also starts at prop in place of Lambert Belmas. Fouad Yaha comes onto the bench, with Tiaki Chan and Joe Drodrolagi removed.
England: 1 AJ Brimson, 2 Dom Young, 3 Hugo Savala, 4 Herbie Farnworth, 5 Zach Eckersley, 6 George Williams, 7 Harry Smith, 8 Max King, 9 Brad O’Neill, 10 Luke Thompson, 11 Junior Nsemba, 12 Kai Pearce-Paul, 13 Victor Radley. Subs: 14 Jez Litten, 15 Ben Currie, 16 Ethan Havard, 17 Sam Walters, 18 Jack Welsby, 19 Matty Ashton. Reserves: 20 Kallum Watkins, 21 Mikey Lewis, 22 Ben Talty.
France: 1 Arthur Mourgue, 2 Guillermo Aispuro-Bichet, 3 Latrell Siegwalt, 4 Roméo Tropis, 5 Benjamin Laguerre, 6 Thomas Lacans, 7 Théo Fages, 8 Romain Navarrete, 9 Amir Bourouh, 10 Julian Bousquet, 11 Arthur Romano, 12 Mathieu Jussaume, 13 Ben Garcia. Subs: 14 César Rougé, 15 Lambert Belmas, 16 Mathieu Cozza, 17 Louis Grossemy, 18 Jordan Dezaria, 19 Fouad Yaha. Reserves: 20 Joe Drodrolagi, 21 Tiaki Chan, 22 Alrix Da Costa.
