Danny Cipriani was dropped to the bench by England manager Martin Johnson in one of three changes to the team to face the All Blacks at Twickenham this Saturday.

Cipriani, who has seen three charged down kicks lead to opposition tries in his last five Tests, endured a torrid match in the 42-6 loss to world champions South Africa at Twickenham last Saturday – England's heaviest home defeat.

His place was taken by Toby Flood, a replacement in all three of England's internationals so far this season. Of Flood's 21 caps to date, 11 have come off the bench.

Flood has a reputation as something of a utility back although he did start at fly-half during the 2007 Six Nations games against Wales and France.

England's other changes were in the pack with openside flanker Michael Lipman replacing Tom Rees.

Meanwhile Nick Kennedy, who made a try-scoring debut in England's victory over the Pacific Islanders earlier this month, returned in place of Tom Palmer, who suffered a calf injury against the Springboks.

New Zealand-born centre Riki Flutey was included in the starting line-up to face the All Blacks despite going off against South Africa after half an hour with a right hamstring injury.

Prop Andrew Sheridan failed to recover from the neck injury he sustained during the 28-14 loss to Australia which kept him out of the subsequent match against South Africa.

Wasps playmaker Cipriani dropped today to a recast bench where Johnson has now opted for a 4-3 split between forwards and backs rather than the 5-2 he'd favoured earlier this month.

He was joined there by Leicester centre Dan Hipkiss as well as scrum-half Harry Ellis. New Zealand-born hooker Dylan Hartley remained on the bench along with Matt Stevens, Palmer and Rees.

But there was no place for lock Simon Shaw, who won his 50th cap after coming on for Palmer last weekend.

England need an improbable win over the All Blacks, the world's number-one ranked team, to break into the top four of the standings and the top four of Monday's draw for the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

If they remain outside the top four they run the risk of being drawn alongside one of the southern hemisphere giants of the All Blacks, South Africa and Australia in the pool phase in New Zealand in three years' time.

Victory for New Zealand would see them completed a second grand slam in three years after wins this month over Scotland (32-6), Ireland (22-3) and Wales (29-9).

New Zealand coach Graham Henry is due to name his side later today.

England team: Delon Armitage; Paul Sackey, Jamie Noon, Riki Flutey, Ugo Monye; Toby Flood, Danny Care; Nick Easter, Michael Lipman, James Haskell; Nick Kennedy, Steve Borthwick (capt); Phil Vickery, Lee Mears, Tim Payne

Replacements: Dylan Hartley, Matt Stevens, Tom Croft, Tom Rees, Harry Ellis, Danny Cipriani, Dan Hipkiss

AFP

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.