Tindall earns England recall for Final

England have recalled Mike Tindall to the midfield for the World Cup Final clash against Australia on Saturday, the Bath man replacing club mate Mike Catt in the No.12 shirt.

Tindall was relegated to the bench for the semi-final, but England coach Clive Woodward has opted for the 25-year-old's powerful presence in his starting line-up to face a heavyweight Wallaby backline division.

In all, Tindall has appeared against the Wallabies on three occasions - most recently in the 25-14 victory in Melbourne back in June, the centre scoring a try in the historic win.

"Tindall is a key part of our team and he fully understood why we made the change [last week] just as Mike Catt has been spot-on in his attitude this week," said Woodward.

"I don't think it's to counter their three-quarter line - it's to supplement our three-quarter line," he added. "Playing Australia it was right to go back with Tindall for this game. Horses for courses is right, we are here to win this game."

Much had been made before the semi-final of Catt's ability to take the pressure off fly-half Jonny Wilkinson, offering as he does a fine tactical sense and excellent kicking game, but Woodward dismissed that the return of Tindall could have an adverse affect on his team's No.10.

"I have no doubt that Wilkinson will play fantastically well whoever is alongside him," said Woodward. "I expect him to play like he always does. The way we played in the earlier matches was not the fault of Wilkinson and I thought that he was Man of the match in every single one of those early matches."

As expected, England have gone for a tried-and-tested combination - indeed, the pack alone boast 375 caps between them while the team has a massive 638 Test appearances under their belt - and are unlikely to deviate too much from the gameplan which has brought the men in white such success during this tournament.

"You don't win World Cups by playing with width, but by winning games," said Woodward when challenged on England's relative lack of tries during RWC 2003. "My mind is very clear and it is based on Saturday night.

"My job at Twickenham is to win Test matches. I get paid to win Test matches. The last four games against Australia we have have won four out of four, and that's the only stat I care about. That's what we pride ourselves on."

England: 15 Josh Lewsey, 14 Jason Robinson, 13 Will Greenwood, 12 Mike Tindall, 11 Ben Cohen, 10 Jonny Wilkinson (vice-captain), 9 Matt Dawson, 8 Lawrence Dallaglio, 7 Neil Back, 6 Richard Hill, 5 Ben Kay, 4 Martin Johnson (captain), 3 Phil Vickery, 2 Steve Thompson, 1 Trevor Woodman.
Replacements: 16 Dorian West, 17 Jason Leonard, 18 Martin Corry, 19 Lewis Moody, 20 Kyran Bracken, 21 Mike Catt, 22 Iain Balshaw.

Kick-off: 20.00 local (09.00 GMT), Live in the UK on ITV1

By Justin O'Regan in Sydney