ENGLAND COACH STUART LANCASTER has kept faith in one-cap centre Billy Twelvetrees, ahead of Manu Tuilagi, for Sunday’s match against Ireland.
Twelvetrees will start at inside centre alongside Brad Barritt, with Tuilagi on the replacements bench.
Leicester scrumhalf Ben Youngs lines up in the halfback pairing alongside place-kicking specialist Owen Farrell of Saracens.
English captain Chris Robshaw is partnered by Tom Wood and James Haskell in the back row. Ben Morgan, who was excellent in last weekend’s opener against Scotland, is ruled out through injury.
The team is otherwise unchanged, with a back three of Alex Goode, Chris Ashton and Mike Brown. Joe Launchbury and Geoff Parling start as locks.
The front row is made up of Joe Marler, Tom Youngs and Dan Cole.
Lancaster’s men got their Six Nations campaign off to a winning start last Saturday with a 38-18 win over Scotland. Farrell kicked 18 points as the home side ran in four tries against the Scots.
Lancaster said, “A lot of the players performed very well and with Manu coming back into the equation it gave us some selection decisions.
But with the centres playing well last week and Manu still returning to match fitness, having not played for the last four weeks, he and others will give us great options from the bench in what I am sure will be a physical encounter.
England are looking for their third successive win over Ireland following a 21-9 World Cup warm-up win at the Aviva Stadium and a 30-9 romp at Twickenham last year.
England: A Goode; C Ashton, B Barritt, B Twelvetrees, M Brown; O Farrell, B Youngs; J Marler, T Youngs, D Cole, J Launchbury, G Parling; Haskell Robshaw (c), Wood.Replacements: D Hartley, M Vunipola, Wilson, C Lawes, T Waldrom, D Care, T Flood, M Tuilagi.
*TheScore.ie will be live for Ireland v England from the Aviva Stadium from 2pm this Sunday.
