Furbank in at fullback, Underhill returns for England against France

LONDON :England coach Eddie Jones has brought in George Furbank to play fullback, switching Freddie Steward to the wing, in the team announced on Thursday for England's final Six Nations game against Grand-Slam chasing France in Paris.

Steward, who is 6ft 5ins (195.5cm), has been impressive at fullback but Jones no doubt feels that by selecting him on the wing he can put pressure on France's 5ft 11in (180cm) Gabin Villiere. Furbank has five caps but last played in the autumn series win over Tonga.

Scrumhalf Ben Youngs, an expert box kicker, also returns to the starting lineup on Saturday.

"It's tactical in terms of the way we think the game will be played, Jones told journalists via a remote news conference in Paris.

"France are the highest kicking team in the world and I don't think they'll deviate away from that too much."

Nick Isiekwe returns to the second row in place of suspended Charlie Ewels while prop Kyle Sinckler, who has had limited training after suffering concussion in last week's defeat by Ireland, is on the bench as Will Stuart starts at tighthead.

In the absence of the injured Tom Curry, Sam Underhill comes in at openside flanker for his first appearance of the championship after a wretched run of concussions and injuries, with Sam Simmonds at Number Eight.

After last week's big effort in defeat by Ireland, when England played for 78 minutes with 14 men and defended with incredible commitment, Jones has taken things easy after travelling to Paris early as a dry run for the 2023 World Cup.

"The Ireland game took a lot out of them physically and emotionally so we've freshened them up," he said. "We only had one training session this week but it was a really good, fast, high quality session."

England, who lost their