Woodward gunning for minnows Georgia

Clive Woodward will unleash his big names on World Cup minnows Georgia next weekend after admitting he was delighted he could…

Clive Woodward will unleash his big names on World Cup minnows Georgia next weekend after admitting he was delighted he could pick his strongest team.

Woodward has made just one change from the side that defeated world champions Australia in Melbourne three months ago. Northampton scrum-half Matt Dawson is recalled to the starting line-up instead of Kyran Bracken.

Head coach Woodward has resisted any temptation to rest key men ahead of Saturday week's critical Pool C clash against South Africa.

"In the back of my mind, we have always been planning it this way ever since we saw the draw," Woodward added. "The majority of these players have only played one game in four months, so it has gone according to plan.

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"It was important for the whole tournament that we started strong with arguably England's strongest team at the moment, but a lot can happen, and we will certainly use the replacements at the weekend.

"You can talk about leaving players out, but at the end of the day it is a World Cup and we are over here to play in it."

Georgia are a relatively unknown quantity for England, yet Woodward has managed to look at tapes of them in action, including a World Cup warm-up match against Italy last month.

"We saw Georgia play against Italy, and they should have beaten them," Woodward said.

England XV:15-Josh Lewsey; 14-Jason Robinson, 13-Will Greenwood, 12-Mike Tindall, 11-Ben Cohen; 10-Jonny Wilkinson, 9-Matt Dawson; 8-Lawrence Dallaglio, 7-Neil Back, 6-Richard Hill, 5-Ben Kay, 4-Martin Johnson (captain) 3-Trevor Woodman, 2-Steve Thompson, 1-Phil Vickery.

Replacements:16-Mark Regan, 17-Jason Leonard, 18-Danny Grewcock, 19-Lewis Moody, 20-Kyran Bracken, 21-Paul Grayson, 22-Ian Balshaw.