Eddie Jones is set to recall George Ford for England’s World Cup semi-final against New Zealand on Saturday and break up the midfield which helped hammer Australia.
A week ago Jones binned fly-half Ford in favour of the more physical 10-12 combination of Owen Farrell and Manu Tuilagi specifically to counter the hard-running threat posed by Aussie centre Samu Kerevi.
The ploy worked a treat as the Wallabies managed just one try and fell victim to England’s biggest ever winning margin in a World Cup knockout match.
But world champions All Blacks pose a different challenge which Jones feels is best served with Ford and captain Farrell reunited and Tuilagi reverting to outside-centre in place of Henry Slade.
Barring any last minute change of heart, Jones will revert to the midfield which started the pool games against Tonga and Argentina – not to mention the summer Test against Ireland when England ran riot.
He is also expected to bring George Kruis into the second row and keep Courtney Lawes up his sleeve for later in the game.
England have lost 15 of their last 16 games dating back to 2003 against New Zealand, who were last beaten in a World Cup-tie in 2007.
Meanwhile, England have addressed their indiscipline issues by punishing players who make mistakes worthy of conceding a penalty during training.
Veteran scrum-half Ben Youngs revealed that Eddie Jones introduced the measure during the build-up to the Rugby World Cup in the hope of eradicating the type of error that has long been an Achilles heel.
Any players who commit offences such as staying offside are punished by being made to do a series of gruelling exercises.
