George Ford returns to fly-half for England's semi-final against New Zealand
George Ford will play his 64th Test for England
©Steve Haag
England coach Eddie Jones has made a solitary change for the upcoming World Cup semi-final against New Zealand to be played in Yokohama on Saturday.
George Ford, who started on the bench in the quarter-final win against Australia returns to the fly-half role pushing skipper Owen Farrell to the inside centre and Manu Tuilagi to outside centre with Henry Slade dropping to the bench.
Ford featured in the starting XV for all the three games during the group stage but Jones shifted him among the reserves for the quarter-final where he replaced Slade in the 60th minute. Jonny May, who was one of the top performer in the game against the Wallabies has overcome a hamstring injury to retain his place while Jack Nowell continues to miss out.
Jones has also made one change among the reserves where Mark Wilson replaces Lewis Ludlam.
England have managed to win just seven out of their 41 games against the All Blacks in their head to head battle with their last victory coming in 2012. The two teams have faced each other three times in World Cups where New Zealand went on to win all the games that include two semi-finals (1991 and 1995) and a group game in 1995.
England starting XV: 15 Elliot Daly, 14 Anthony Watson, 13 Manu Tuilagi, 12 Owen Farrell, 11 Jonny May, 10 George Ford, 9 Ben Youngs; 1 Mako Vunipola, 2 Jamie George, 3 Kyle Sinckler, 4 Maro Itoje, 5 Courtney Lawes, 6 Tom Curry, 7 Sam Underhill, 8 Billy Vunipola.
Reserves: 16 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 17 Joe Marler, 18 Dan Cole, 19 George Kruis, 20 Mark Wilson, 21 Willi Heinz, 22 Henry Slade, 23 Jonathan Joseph.
