ENGLAND V WALESFULLBACK Lee Byrne has been cleared to play in Saturday's match against England at Twickenham.
Byrne last night won an appeal against a two-week ban imposed following his brief appearance as a 16th player in the Ospreys’ Heineken Cup victory over Leicester 10 days ago.
An independent appeal committee decided Byrne’s sanction should be varied to a €5,000 fine.
He admitted a misconduct charge last Friday and was suspended, but Wales head coach Warren Gatland delayed his team announcement for the England game in the hope Byrne might be available.
Byrne is now set to line up at Twickenham when Wales will chase a fourth successive Six Nations win against their hosts.
Martin Johnson announced the most exciting backline of his tenure as England manager yesterday for Saturday’s match.
He has recalled Mathew Tait alongside fit-again Riki Flutey in a new-look centre partnership, with Delon Armitage restored to fullback after he, like Flutey, missed the November internationals.
Danny Care is restored at scrumhalf ahead of Paul Hodgson and with number eight James Haskell and prop David Wilson recalled, the team shows six changes from that well beaten 19-6 by New Zealand just over two months ago.
The selection marks a change of emphasis for Johnson, who said he and his coaching team had been too prescriptive in previous matches and needed to give his backs more freedom.
Tait has 32 caps but only 15 as a starter. The Sale centre, who made a memorable debut against Wales as a teenager five years ago when he was twice dumped on his back by Gavin Henson, has featured at wing and fullback since during an in-and-out career.
His eye for a break and silky running was seen at its best in the 2007 World Cup final when he set up Mark Cueto for the try that was ruled out by the video referee.
Saturday, his 24th birthday, will represent only his second start since that Springbok defeat in Paris.
Flutey’s return should help Tait and fans will hope it also helps Jonny Wilkinson sharpen up his distribution.
England face a stiff task in the scrum where their trio of Tim Payne, Dylan Hartley and David Wilson, with just 33 caps between them, will have to be at their best to handle Wales’s all-Lions front row of Gethin Jenkins, Matthew Rees and Adam Jones.
ENGLAND(v Wales) D Armitage (London Irish); M Cueto (Sale Sharks), M Tait (Sale Sharks), R Flutey (Brive), U Monye (Harlequins); J Wilkinson (Toulon), D Care (Harlequins); T Payne (Wasps), D Hartley (Northampton), D Wilson (Bath), S Shaw (Wasps), S Borthwick (Saracens, capt), J Haskell (Stade Francais), L Moody (Leicester), N Easter (Harlequins). Replacements: S Thompson (Brive), D Cole (Leicester), L Deacon (Leicester), S Armitage (London Irish), P Hodgson (London Irish), T Flood (Leicester), B Foden (Northampton).
