Wasps speedster Christian Wade returns to the wing and Charlie Davies starts at scrum-half with the tournament’s all-time leading points scorer Tom Homer returning at full-back.

And despite Homer proving he was human after all by missing a couple of kicks against France, the London Irish starlet is not letting it affect his game ahead of the semi-final with the junior Wallabies.

“I get on the pitch and try and do the best I can,” he said. “The two kicks I missed against France, weren't an issue, though I may have been focusing too much on other parts of my game.

“Fortunately Freddie was knocking them over pretty well that day.

“Australia will be very tough opponents, I've never played against them before so looking at them in our analysis has been key for me.

“We've obviously been looking very hard at whatever it will take to beat them.”

England return to the familiarity of Stadio Coloso del Parque where they won all three of their pool games but head coach Mark Mapletoft is not taking anything for granted.

He said: “I've been very impressed with Australia, especially in their performance against South Africa, scoring five tries against what looked like a very good South African team.

“They'll present a difficult hurdle for us to overcome. At the same time our preparation has been very good and we've managed to be successful in the semis in the last two years and we'd love to go one better.”

Meanwhile, Wales face hosts Argentina in a fifth-place semi-final and welcome back captain Dan Watchurst to the starting XV after he dropped to the bench for their clash with New Zealand.

Wales coach Phil Davies has also drafted in fly-half Steve Shingler and handed a first start to lock Joel Galley.

Scotland have made three changes to the side that beat Tonga 27-3 on Sunday as they prepare to face the south-sea islanders once more, this time in the ninth-place semi-final.

A second successive victory for the Scots would secure their place in the world's premier under-20 competition next season, while a loss would mean they would have to battle it out with the loser of the corresponding semi-final between Samoa and Six Nations grand slam winners, Ireland, to stay in the top flight.

Ireland, still looking for their first win of this year’s competition, have made nine changes to their starting line-up as coach Allen Clarke looks to turn around their fortunes.

Andrew Boyle makes his first start of the tournament on the right wing, and there is a new centre pairing of Leinster duo Brendan Macken and David McSharry.

Ulster's Michael Heaney comes in for his first start at scrum-half while Bryan Cagney and Martin Moore also get the nod for their tournament bows.