England steer clear of injuries

England look to have avoided the injury scourge that has blighted their RBS 6 Nations campaign ahead of Saturday's showdown against France.

The World Cup finalists lost four players - Mike Tindall, Lewis Moody, David Strettle and Tom Rees - to injury during their opening weekend defeat against Wales, before Andrew Sheridan (heel) and Phil Vickery (stomach bug) were sidelined prior to the 23-19 victory over Italy 12 days ago.

But head coach Brian Ashton is set to field the team he announced earlier this week.

Wing Paul Sackey (thumb), centre Jamie Noon (tight hamstring) and lock Steve Borthwick (knee) all missed last weekend's Guinness Premiership action for their clubs.

England though, have reported no last-minute injury concerns ahead of a game they must win to keep alive Six Nations title hopes.

Ashton said: "The players are well aware of the importance of this game.

"Not because it is England versus France, not because it is the third game of the Six Nations, but because we really need to see signs now for 80 minutes that the team is starting to move in a different direction.

"They are certainly in the mood to put that into operation. We constantly talk about the process of how we want to play the game, and that never changes.

"If we get in front, we have got to be more ruthless in terms of just applying ourselves to the detail of how we want to play the game.

"The first-half performances (against Wales and Italy) have been okay. I have been disappointed in the second-half performances, obviously."