Rugby World Cup: Jonathan Joseph back for England

Jonathan Joseph (left) replaces Sam Burgess (right) to resume his midfield partnership with Brad Barritt

Jonathan Joseph has been recalled to the England starting line-up in place of Sam Burgess for Saturday's crucial game against Australia.

The centre, 24, missed the World Cup hosts' 28-25 defeat by Wales with a chest injury but will be back alongside Brad Barritt in midfield at Twickenham.

Number eight Ben Morgan and lock Joe Launchbury replace injured pair Billy Vunipola and Courtney Lawes.

Scrum-half Ben Youngs is fit to start after an ankle injury.

Harlequins number eight Nick Easter, 37, is named on the bench after being called up for his third World Cup as a replacement for Vunipola, who has been ruled out of the tournament with a knee ligament strain.

England face the prospect of becoming the first sole host nation not to reach the knockout stage of a World Cup if they are beaten by the Wallabies.

If Wales beat Fiji on Thursday, England must beat Australia to stay in the tournament.

Stuart Lancaster's team are third in Pool A after Saturday's defeat by Wales, a game England had led 22-12 with 30 minutes left.

"Jonathan Joseph is hard to replace - he has proved in the last 12 months to be a high-quality international player," said England head coach Lancaster.

"With Ben Morgan coming in, we feel we needed a specialist number eight on the bench and Nick Easter has experience across the board. That is why it has tipped the call in his favour ahead of James Haskell."

The Wallabies named their squad earlier on Thursday, making 14 changes to the team that ran in 11 tries against Uruguay in a 65-3 victory on Sunday.

Open-side flankers Michael Hooper and David Pocock, who impressed in the opening win against Fiji by providing a dual threat at the breakdown, both start again for Michael Cheika's side.

"We have got to pay a lot of respect to Hooper and Pocock, and across the board they threaten you," said England captain Chris Robshaw.

"But I back our guys to take them on up front. As a pack we have been building nicely over the last couple of weeks."

England: Mike Brown; Anthony Watson, Jonathan Joseph, Brad Barritt, Jonny May; Owen Farrell, Ben Youngs; Joe Marler, Tom Youngs, Dan Cole, Joe Launchbury, Geoff Parling, Tom Wood, Chris Robshaw, Ben Morgan.

Replacements: Rob Webber, Mako Vunipola, Kieran Brookes, George Kruis, Nick Easter, Richard Wigglesworth, George Ford, Sam Burgess.