Dylan Hartley is named in England team
Northampton hooker Dylan Hartley will replace veteran Steve Thompson in the England team that faces Australia at Twickenham on Saturday 13 November.
Hartley is brought into the first team after his impressive substitute appearance in England’s 16-26 loss to New Zealand on Saturday 6 November.
Hartley scored a try in England’s fight back, and the player has been rewarded as Thompson drops out of the first 15 and starts on the bench.
Veteran Simon Shaw replaces Dave Attwood in the only other change to the squad. The 37-year-old has been in sublime form with club and country over the past number of seasons and was a key player in the Lions tour last season.
England coach Martin Johnson has kept faith with the majority of his team, but has insisted that they must defend better and not allow Australia to build up a lead like the All Blacks did last week.
"We can't do that again this week against Australia. You can't let a team like that get a jump on you as they are very good,” said Johnson at an English press conference.
Australia are the form team after impressive wins over New Zealand and Wales in the past two weeks.
Johnson warned his side of the threat of Australia ahead of Saturday’s Test.
"In some ways they [Australia] are more dangerous than the All Blacks in the way they can break for tries. They get around you and the support is sharp. We really need to get those bits sorted out. It's about speed and intensity.”
The England coach feels that his team can fix the errors they made against New Zealand in the early part of the match, which were enough for the All Blacks to close out any England fight back.
"We were a bit disjointed defensively, especially early on against New Zealand. It's a little bit of everything—not one glaring error by one player—these are fixable things, and we need to fix them before the weekend," Johnson said.
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