West to captain England against France

England coach Clive Woodward has named Dorian West as England captain in another experimental team to face France in Marseilles…

England coach Clive Woodward has named Dorian West as England captain in another experimental team to face France in Marseilles in the second of their three World Cup warm-ups next Saturday.

A virtual England second-string side beat Wales 43-9 in Cardiff on Saturday and though there are 10 changes from that team, the line-up for the first of back-to-back matches against France is again a long way from Woodward's first choice.

"I've kept a lot of the forwards who played against Wales on Saturday and most notably Dorian West will captain the side for the first time," Woodward said.

West is one of seven Leicester players in the team, though regular Leicester and England captain Martin Johnson, along with other international regulars such as Jonny Wilkinson, Lawrence Dallaglio and Will Greenwood are all absent.

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Leicester centre Ollie Smith, who turned 21 earlier this month, will make his full debut alongside Mike Tindall. Bath fullback Iain Balshaw, whose last international appearance came against Ireland in 2002 was recalled while recent first-choice fullback Josh Lewsey moves to the wing.

There is also a return for Austin Healey, who will play inside Paul Grayson at scrumhalf after a lengthy injury absence.

The Leicester player, who has appeared in every backline position for England, is hoping to be selected as one of the three scrumhalves when Woodward names his 30-man World Cup squad on September 8th.

England play France again at Twickenham on September 6th.

England: 15-Iain Balshaw; 14-Josh Lewsey, 13-Ollie Smith, 12-Mike Tindall, 11-Ben Cohen; 10-Paul Grayson, 9-Austin Healey; 8-Joe Worsley, 7-Lewis Moody, 6-Martin Corry, 5-Danny Grewcock, 4-Steve Borthwick, 3-Julian White, 2-Dorian West (captain), 1-Graham Rowntree.

Replacements: 16-Steve Thompson, 17-Jason Leonard, 18-Simon Shaw, 19-Alex Sanderson, 20-Andy Gomarsall, 21-Dave Walder, 22-Jamie Noon.