England team manager Martin Johnson has warned his side to be prepared for Scotland’s fury on Saturday after making three changes for the final Pool B game.
Mark Cueto, despite scoring a hat-trick against Romania, is replaced by Delon Armitage with prop Matt Stevens and lock Courtney Lawes, following a two-match suspension, also returning to the starting XV.
A losing bonus point would be good enough to take England through to the quarter-finals while it is win or bust for Scotland following their loss to Argentina.
And Johnson says the knockout stages start early for England at Eden Park this Saturday and told his team they need to harness Scotland’s desperation to their own advantage.
He said: “They are potentially dangerous, potentially vulnerable. It is how they handle it.
“Their frustration their fury, whatever they have talked about this week, they have to turn that into a performance.
“We have to turn where we are into a performance.
“This is the oldest international in the world, there is a lot of history there. That is all for the build-up and the exterior.
“It is about us playing well. You have got to handle the pressure, handle the expectation, handle the spotlight and go out and play.
“If we do that we will put ourselves in a good place.”
Stevens and Lawes replace Alex Corbisiero and Tom Palmer who drop to the bench where Nick Easter returns following a back complaint.
Johnson also keeps faith with the half-back pairing of Jonny Wilkinson and Ben Youngs but his most controversial call was the decision to promote Armitage – traditionally a full-back – to the wing ahead of Cueto,
The Sale Shark wing started his first game of the World Cup by touching down three times against Romania but Johnson revealed Cueto is still not back to 100per cent fitness.
He said: “Delon has played very well, we are very comfortable with him playing there and Mark has had limited game time since he has been here.
“He has played very well. I said all the way through that if Delon is in good form he is a Test match player.
“I said if he is playing well and doing everything right he will get a shot and put pressure on the guys in the top three.
“The injury with Mark has been a factor with that and he is probably one game short of being right back where he could be.”
England team to play Scotland:
15. Ben Foden – Northampton Saints 14. Chris Ashton – Northampton Saints 13. Manu Tuilagi – Leicester Tigers 12. Mike Tindall – Gloucester Rugby 11. Delon Armitage – London Irish 10. Jonny Wilkinson – Toulon 9. Ben Youngs – Leicester Tigers 1. Matt Stevens – Saracens 2. Steve Thompson – London Wasps 3. Dan Cole – Leicester Tigers 4. Louis Deacon – Leicester Tigers 5. Courtney Lawes – Northampton Saints 6. Tom Croft – Leicester Tigers 7. Lewis Moody – Bath Rugby 8. James Haskell – Ricoh Black Rams Replacements 16. Dylan Hartley – Northampton Saints 17. Alex Corbisiero – London Irish 18. Tom Palmer – Stade Francais 19. Nick Easter – Harlequins 20. Richard Wigglesworth – Saracens 21. Toby Flood – Leicester Tigers 22. Matt Banahan – Bath Rugby