England name Erinle for All Blacks test

12 April 2012

Ayoola Erinle will make his first England start after replacing Shane Geraghty at inside centre in the team to play New Zealand at Twickenham on Saturday.

The surprise selection of the Biarritz centre is one of three personnel changes Martin Johnson has made to the side that laboured to a 16-9 victory over Argentina last weekend.

Simon Shaw returns to the second row after recovering from a foot injury and Joe Worsley is back at blind-side flanker.

Johnson has also made one positional change with Ugo Monye switching to the wing and Mark Cueto taking over at full-back.

Geraghty, Louis Deacon and Tom Croft all drop to the bench, where they are joined by Mathew Tait, who is involved for the first time this autumn, and fit-again prop David Wilson.

Erinle, who was originally drafted into the party from outside England's 64-man elite squad following an injury to Mike Tindall, will win his second cap after coming off the bench in the 18-9 defeat to Australia earlier this month.

The 29-year-old has been selected at inside centre despite having spent the majority of his rugby career for Wasps, Leicester and Biarritz playing at outside centre.

Erinle offers a more physical midfield presence to Geraghty, who has been used as an alternative playmaker to Jonny Wilkinson in the last two Test matches.England team for Saturday's Investec Challenge international against New Zealand at Twickenham (1430):

M Cueto (Sale Sharks); M Banahan (Bath), D Hipkiss (Leicester), A Erinle (Biarritz), U Monye (Harlequins); J Wilkinson (Toulon), P Hodgson (London Irish); T Payne (Wasps), D Hartley (Northampton), D Bell (Bath), S Shaw (Wasps), S Borthwick (Saracens, capt), J Worsley (Wasps), L Moody (Leicester), J Haskell (Stade Francais).

Replacements: S Thompson (Brive), D Wilson (Bath), L Deacon (Leicester), T Croft (Leicester), D Care (Harlequins), S Geraghty (Northampton), M Tait (Sale Sharks).

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