England drop Farrell, recall Twelvetrees

England dropped Owen Farrell to the bench and recalled specialist centre Billy Twelvetrees to the midfield in a bid to finish a disappointing November campaign with victory against Australia at Twickenham on Saturday.

Farrell, normally a five-eighth, played at inside centre in the 28-9 win over Samoa last weekend after Bath No.10 George Ford made his first Test start.

But he failed to impress in midfield and now England coach Stuart Lancaster has given Ford the chance to show what he can do at No.10 against major opposition and an Australia team his side will play at Twickenham in the pool stages of next year’s World Cup.

“It’s good to be able to give Billy his first start of the series,” said Lancaster in a Rugby Football Union statement.

“He took on board the feedback we gave him when he first came into camp and he has worked hard both with us and at Gloucester and deserves his chance.”

England will be especially keen to finish 2014 with a flourish after successive, albeit narrow, losses at home to world champions New Zealand (24-21) and South Africa (31-28) earlier this month raised questions in particular about the ability of their back division and loose forwards against rugby’s leading nations.

Australia, who will kick-off on the back of successive three-point defeats by France and Ireland after opening the Test leg of their tour with a win over Wales, named their side earlier on Thursday.

With Tevita Kuridrani sidelined with an ankle injury, Wallabies coach Michael Cheika moved Adam Ashley-Cooper to outside centre and put Rob Horne on the wing while, up front, Sean McMachon returned at blindside flanker.

Cheika has yet to announce his bench.

England (15-1): Mike Brown, Anthony Watson, Brad Barritt, Billy Twelvetrees, Jonny May, George Ford, Ben Youngs, Ben Morgan, Chris Robshaw (capt), Tom Wood, Courtney Lawes, Dave Attwood, David Wilson, Dylan Hartley, Joe Marler. Bench: Rob Webber, Matt Mullan, Kieran Brookes, George Kruis, James Haskell, Richard Wigglesworth, Owen Farrell, Marland Yarde

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