Six Nations 2013: Tuilagi, Lawes and Hartley back for England
England have brought back Manu Tuilagi, Courtney Lawes and Dylan Hartley for Saturday's crunch Six Nations clash with France.
Tuilagi comes into the centres in place of Billy Twelvetrees, who drops to the bench, with Brad Barritt reverting to the inside centre berth.
Lawes replaces James Haskell at blind-side flanker at Twickenham and Hartley ousts Tom Youngs at hooker.
Twelvetrees and Youngs will both be on the bench for the Championship leaders.
Lawes, frequently used as a second row, will be making both his first start in the Six Nations and his first Test start in the number six shirt.
Six of the Best: England v France
His last Test start was against Scotland in the 2011 World Cup and his recall comes following a series of injuries.
Unbeaten England go into the game on the back of a gritty win in Dublin a fortnight ago and coach Stuart Lancaster admitted: "We thought long and hard about changing a winning team which did so well against Ireland.
"But we believe that Dylan, Courtney and Manu are ready for the opportunity and allow us to vary our play, while the bench will add impact and energy as the game unfolds in the second half.
"The players are really looking forward to getting back to Twickenham; the atmosphere in the stadium is fantastic and hopefully the crowd can get behind us in what is sure to be a great challenge against a motivated and physical French team."
France are currently bottom of the table after two defeats in two games, while England opened their account with a big win against Scotland before edging past Ireland in driving rain.
Team line-up
England: 15. Alex Goode (Saracens, 8 caps); 14. Chris Ashton (Saracens, 31 caps), 13. Manusamoa Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers, 18 caps), 12. Brad Barritt (Saracens, 13 caps), 11. Mike Brown (Harlequins, 13 caps); 10. Owen Farrell (Saracens, 14 caps), 9. Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers, 30 caps); 1. Joe Marler (Harlequins, 7 caps), 2. Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints, 44 caps), 3. Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers, 37 caps), 4. Joe Launchbury (London Wasps, 6 caps), 5. Geoff Parling (Leicester Tigers, 14 caps), 6. Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints, 17 caps), 7. Chris Robshaw (Harlequins, capt, 14 caps), 8. Tom Wood (Northampton Saints, 15 caps). Replacements: 16. Tom Youngs (Leicester Tigers, 6 caps), 17. David Wilson (Bath Rugby, 24 caps), 18. Mako Vunipola (Saracens, 6 caps), 19. James Haskell (London Wasps, 47 caps), 20. Thomas Waldrom (Leicester Tigers, 5 caps), 21. Danny Care (Harlequins, 38 caps), 22. Toby Flood (Leicester Tigers, 54 caps), 23. Billy Twelvetrees (Gloucester, 2 caps)
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