England boss Brian McDermott has revealed an alteration to his team for Saturday’s World Cup clash with France.

McDermott has named an unchanged 19 from the one beaten 30-12 by Tonga in last weekend’s opening game, but confirmed winger Matty Ashton will start with Wigan Warriors’ Zach Eckersley dropping to the six-man bench in Perth, Western Australia. “That’s not a performance thing,” the coach said at an online press conference today.

“I thought Zach was great. He had that moment where he bobbled the ball on the high catch, but after that I was very, very impressed with how he handled that. He carried the ball and certainly carried it in really tough positions for us and dealt with a load of high-pressure catches after that. That was very impressive, but we are in a tournament where I need to have a look at a few people as well so Matty Ashton goes on the wing for this week.”

Of Warrington Wolves flier Ashton, McDermott said: “Him and Zach Eckersley have both had really, really good seasons. [They are] very similar type of players, both play on the ad[vantage] line, both carry it in really difficult positions, both have an ability to find the ground. It’s like for like, almost.”

Matty Ashton, seen in training this week, will start for England against France on Saturday. Picture by Peter Keleman/SWpix.com.

placeholder image — Matty Ashton, seen in training this week, will start for England against France on Saturday. Picture by Peter Keleman/SWpix.com.

Despite the result, McDermott was happy with the way his side played against Tonga for the most part and insisted: “I didn’t feel like there needed to be a load of changes, given that performance.”

That means no place for Leeds Rhinos’ Kallum Watkins. The Warrington-Wigan combination of George Williams and Harry Smith will continue in the halves with Hull KR’s Mikey Lewis missing out, though the coach admitted he has pondered a change.

“Mikey Lewis is a tremendous player,” he stated. “You’ve got to wonder whether he would give us something we haven’t got. For sure it has been considered, but I thought George was good.

"I know he was involved in a couple of errors when we started playing a bit too hot, but I think he was been unfairly assessed and I thought Harry Smith was really good. I thought we were coordinated in both yardage attack and good ball attack.”