England spring surprise by dropping Ford

England coach Eddie Jones has sprung a surprise by dropping fly-half George Ford for Saturday’s World Cup quarter-final against Australia. The Leicester playmaker started all of England’s pool games in Japan and was one of their most impressive performers, but Jones has opted to move captain Owen Farrell to fly-half with Henry Slade coming in to partner Manu Tuilagi at centre. Jones says he has made the alteration, as he feels those three players are the best equipped to deal with Australia’s possession-based attack. “Australia defend a certain way – we believe these three players can trouble their defence, and defensively we feel like it’s a pretty strong 10-12-13 combination,” said Jones. “We know Australia are a high possession team, they are a high phase team and that’s how they want to play.” Both Billy and Mako Vunipola have been declared fit to start, while Courtney Lawes is preferred to George Kruis at lock. Kruis will start on the bench, alongside Ford and Joe Marler, who has also been dropped, but wing Jonny May does start and he will win his 50th cap, six years on from making his debut against Argentina. England will fancy their chances of beating Australia, as they have won the last six meetings between the two sides, with the winner of Saturday’s Test in Oita going on to take on either New Zealand or Ireland in the semi-finals.