Geoff Parling the solitary change to English team for France

England have promoted Geoff Parling to the second row and recalled Nick Easter to the bench for Saturday's decisive RBS Six Nations clash with France at Twickenham.

The solitary change to the starting fifteen that toppled Scotland 25-13 last weekend sees Parling replace Dave Attwood, who has been dropped from the 23 altogether.

Instead, head coach Stuart Lancaster has looked to Easter to provide lock cover among the replacements as England aim to clinch a first Championship since 2011.

“Geoff did well off the bench against Scotland and now that he has got some games under his belt we feel it is the right time to start him and use his experience and quality in the starting line-up,” Lancaster said.

“The same goes for Nick Easter, who has really impressed in camp and in his appearances off the bench.

“Nick is a quality ball carrier and great defender — things we feel we’ll need in the latter stages of the game.”

ENGLAND: M Brown (Harlequins); A Watson (Bath), J Joseph (Bath), L Burrell (Northampton), J Nowell (Exeter); G Ford (Bath), B Youngs (Leicester); J Marler (Harlequins), D Hartley (Northampton), D Cole (Leicester), G Parling (Leicester), C Lawes (Northampton), J Haskell (Wasps), C Robshaw (Harlequins, capt), B Vunipola (Saracens).

Replacements: T Youngs (Leicester), M Vunipola (Saracens), K Brookes (Newcastle), N Easter (Harlequins), T Wood (Northampton), R Wigglesworth (Saracens), D Cipriani (Sale), B Twelvetrees (Gloucester).