England v France Live

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England take on France in the second of the four quarter-finals of the Rugby World Cup 2011. The game will be played on Saturday October 8, 2011 and will begin from 2030 hours local time. The England v France game will be played at the Eden Park in Auckland.

The two teams have played 94 games against each other in their history of International Rugby with England winning 51 and France triumphing in 36. More importantly, in Rugby World Cups, the two sides have played in four matches with England winning all but one game. The two sides played recently in the Six Nations, where England were victorious again, winning 17-9.

England will go into the game with four changes from the team that had played and edged out Scotland in their last league game. Of the four changes the one that has caught the attention the most is that of Toby Flood at inside centre. With Mike Tindall injured, and Jonny Wilkinson in form, things have looked a tad difficult for the English side.

Delon Armitage is also ruled out of the game after he was suspended for a shoulder charge in the Scotland match.

France have named two changes to the side that went down to the not so fancied Tonga side. These include Nicolas Mas (prop) and Imanol Harinordoquy (No.8) getting a chance to play the match.

David Marty and Fabrice Estebanez will both miss the game, the former because of poor form and the latter due to an injury issue.

England will go into the game as favourites, given the form that they have shown in the tournament so far. They have beaten Argentina 13-9, Georgia 41-10, Romania 67-3 before winning narrowly against Scotland 16-12. France, on the other hand, started with a win against Japan 47-21 and then beat Canada 46-19. However this was followed by a crushing loss to New Zealand 17-37 and then to Tonga 14-19.

England: 1. Matt Stevens, 2. Steve Thompson, 3. Dan Cole, 4. Louis Deacon, 5. Tom Palmer, 6. Tom Croft, 7. Lewis Moody (capt), 8. Nick Easter, 9. Ben Youngs, 10. Jonny Wilkinson, 11. Mark Cueto, 12. Toby Flood Mike Tindall, 13. Manu Tuilagi, 14. Chris Ashton, 15. Ben Foden.

Reserves: 16. Dylan Hartley, 17. Alex Corbisiero, 18. Courteney Lawes, 19. Simon Shaw, 20. James Haskell, 21. Richard Wigglesworth, 22. Matt Banahan.

France: 1. Jean-Baptiste Poux, 2. William Servat, 3. Nicolas Mas, 4. Pascal Pape, 5. Lionel Nallet, 6. Thierry Dusautoir (capt), 7. Julien Bonnaire, 8. Imanol Harinordoquy, 9. Dimitri Yachvili, 10. Morgan Parra, 11. Alexis Palisson, 12. Maxime Mermoz, 13. Aurelien Rougerie, 14. Vincent Clerc, 15. Maxime Medard.

Reserves: 16. Dimitri Szarzewski, 17. Fabien Barcella, 18. Julien Pierre, 19. Louis Picamoles, 20. Francois Trinh-Duc, 21. David Marty, 22. Cedric Heymans.