Thompson relishing France

Wilkinson will start at fly-half, while his rival for the number 10 shirt, 26-year-old Flood, comes into the starting line-up at inside centre in place of the injured Mike Tindall.

"It's not a gamble, you always put a lot of thought into your selections, no more so than in the quarter-finals of the World Cup," England coach Martin Johnson told a news conference.

"It's one of our options, we believe we've picked the best team for this particular match."

Johnson said it had not yet been decided whether Wilkinson or Flood, who have played together both at club and international level before, would take place kicking duties.

Wilkinson's kicking has been a major factor in several England victories against France, not least in the semi-finals of the last two World Cups, but the 32-year-old has converted less than half of his attempts at the tournament so far.

"It is an exciting combination for us," Johnson said. "It gives us Toby's kicking game and his passing game.

"Jonny has had a lot of long kicks and going into a game like this you do not want to be playing against Jonny Wilkinson."

Johnson also shuffled his pack with the inclusion of Nick Easter and Tom Palmer, and named five forwards on the bench for what is expected to be a bruising battle with the French on Saturday.

Number eight Easter starts at the expense of James Haskell, while Palmer has been preferred to Courtney Lawes in the second row for the Eden Park clash.

Haskell and Lawes drop to the bench.

"He (Easter) brings a lot of experience there at that position," Johnson. "He brings a good degree of game control and it is one of the toughest calls on James. He has played well for us. It was a tough call.

"But Nick is the right guy to start, with James on the bench.

"It is do or die and it is a World Cup quarter-final and there is no holding yourself back. We have five forwards on the bench and I think it will be that type of game."

Mark Cueto, who scored a hat-trick in his last outing against Romania, returns to the left wing in place of Delon Armitage, who was banned for one match for a dangerous tackle on Scotland's Chris Paterson.

Centre Tindall suffered a dead leg in England's final pool match against Scotland last week and, while he might have been fit to play on Saturday, had not trained fully in the week, Johnson said.

"Mike took a couple of bangs last week and he has been sore all week," the coach added. "He has not been available to us this week. That was part of the equation and with Toby playing well, we have options."

Team: 15-Ben Foden, 14-Chris Ashton, 13-Manu Tuilagi, 12-Toby Flood, 11-Mark Cueto, 10-Jonny Wilkinson, 9-Ben Youngs, 8-Nick Easter, 7-Lewis Moody (captain), 6-Tom Croft, 5-Tom Palmer, 4-Louis Deacon, 3-Dan Cole, 2-Steve Thompson, 1-Matt Stevens.

Replacements: 16-Dylan Hartley, 17-Alex Corbisiero, 18-Courtney Lawes, 19-Simon Shaw, 20-James Haskell, 21-Richard Wigglesworth, 22-Matt Banahan.