Jonny Wilkinson and Toby Flood will start for in England in one of four changes to Martin Johnson’s side for the Rugby World Cup quarter final against France at Eden Park on Saturday.

Leicester Tigers’ Flood is joined in the starting XV by lock Tom Palmer, No 8 Nick Easter and wing Mark Cueto who all come in for Courtney Lawes, James Haskell and Delon Armitage respectively.

Lawes and Haskell drop down to the bench, alongside three other forwards in Dylan Hartley, Alex Corbisiero and Simon Shaw, with Richard Wigglesworth covering the halfback positions and Matt Banahan the rest of the backline.

Wilkinson is England’s record points scorer with 1,177, but he has not had the best of tournaments with the boot. He came off with an elbow injury five minutes from the end of England’s laboured 16-12 final pool win over Scotland at Eden Park in Auckland last Saturday.

Questions have been raised about the 32-year-old Wilkinson’s effectiveness as he has managed just nine out of his 20 goal attempts in the tournament, and there have been calls for Leicester’s Flood to take over at fly-half.

It was replacement Flood’s long pass that prised open the Scots’ defence for wing Chris Ashton to score the winning try with two minutes left.

But now Johnson, England’s 2003 World Cup-winning captain, has decided to pair the two together with inside centre Mike Tindall, not in the matchday 22, having suffered a leg injury against Scotland.

England (15-1)

Ben Foden; Chris Ashton, Manu Tuilagi, Toby Flood, Mark Cueto; Jonny Wilkinson, Ben Youngs; Nick Easter, Lewis Moody (capt), Tom Croft; Tom Palmer, Louis Deacon; Dan Cole, Steve Thompson, Matt Stevens

Replacements: Dylan Hartley, Alex Corbisiero, Courtney Lawes, Simon Shaw, James Haskell, Richard Wigglesworth, Matt Banahan.