Apart from that, Martin Johnson once again stays loyal to the group of players that have won four matches from four in the Six Nations.

There had been speculation that Tom Croft could be promoted to the starting XV ahead of Tom Wood after his decisive try in the 22-16 defeat of Scotland but the Leicester flanker has to make do with his place on the bench.

Johnson has only actually made four changes to his starting XV over the course of the Championship – all of them because of injuries.

He also resisted the temptation to give Northampton lock Courtney Lawes a place on the bench with Simon Shaw remaining as cover for the second row.

Tindall’s fitness though was taken out of his hands after damaging his ligaments in the victory over Scotland in which he was replaced at halftime by Banahan.

The Bath winger-cum-centre certainly made his impact felt as Scotland No.8 Kelly Brown had to be carried off with a concussion after the pair collided.

Banahan avoided any disciplinary action despite accusations that he led with his forearm and is in line to win his 11th cap.

15 - Ben Foden (Northampton)

14 - Chris Ashton (Northampton)

13 - Matt Banahan (Bath)

12 - Shontayne Hape (Bath

11 - Mark Cueto (Sale)

10 - Toby Flood (Leicester)

9 - Ben Youngs (Leicester)

1 - Alex Corbisiero (London Irish)

2 - Dylan Hartley (Northampton)

3 - Dan Cole (Leicester)

4 - Louis Deacon (Leicester)

5 - Tom Palmer (Stade Francais)

6 - Tom Wood (Northampton)

7 - James Haskell (Stade Francais)

8- Nick Easter (Harlequins)

Replacements:

16 - Paul Doran-Jones (Gloucester)

17 - Steve Thompson (Leeds Carnegie)

18 - Simon Shaw (Wasps)

19 - Tom Croft (Leicester)

20 - Danny Care (Harlequins)

21 - Jonny Wilkinson (Toulon)

22 - David Strettle (Saracens)