Rugby World Cup 2019: Eddie Jones explains why he has dropped George Ford for England vs Australia

Fly-half drops to the bench for England’s quarter-final showdown with the Wallabies as Jones restores captain Owen Farrell to fly-half in plan to nullify Samu Kerevi

Eddie Jones has decided to drop George Ford from his starting line-up for England’s showdown Rugby World Cup quarter-final against Australia in order to try and defensively suffocate the Wallabies.

Despite starring in all three of England’s matches so far in Japan, Ford has been dropped to the bench in order to allow Owen Farrell to move to fly-half and Henry Slade come into the centre with Manu Tuilagi, beefing up a midfield combination that will have to try and stop the power threat of Wallabies centre Samu Kerevi.

Ford has not missed a tackle this World Cup, but his defence has long been seen as the weakest part of his game, and Jones appears to be taking no risks in terms of trying to shackle Kerevi this weekend.

“We have a starting and a finishing team so [Ford’s] going to finish for us instead of start,” Jones said on Thursday, having made three personnel changes to the side that beat Argentina with Mako Vunipola and Courtney Lawes also returning.

“I spoke to him this morning and obviously he’s disappointed but he knows his role in the team. He’s got an important role in the team and that’s how we’ve spoken all along, we’ve got a squad of 23, we look at it as a squad of 23, everyone has a role to do.

“We’ve left a lot of good players out of the squad of 31 and they’re disappointed, but [Ford’s] got a significant role with us to play.

“It’s always a horses for courses situation in terms of selection, we’re always looking to pick the right team for the right game and we feel this is the best starting and finishing team for this game.”

A big part of the decision appears to be in preparation for Kerevi to line Tuilagi up directly opposite him, with the 26-year-old Fijian-born centre establishing himself as one of the most powerful runners of the World Cup.

“We just feel that’s the best combination for this week,” added Jones. “Kerevi is a damaging ball carrier and whoever they pick at 13, if they pick the other big Fijian boy then they’ve got two big ball carriers, but we believe we’ve got the defensive capabilities to handle them and cause them a few problems.

“Australia defend a certain way and we believe those three players can also trouble their defence, and defensively we feel like it's a pretty strong 10-12-13 combination. We know Australia are a high possession team, they are a high phase team and that’s how they want to play and so there’s going to be a lot of defending in that area and we think those three guys are well equipped to handle it.”

Eddie Jones has dropped George Ford from England's Rugby World Cup clash with Australia (Getty)

Whether England have had the ideal preparation or not remains to be seen, given they have not played a match for two weeks since having their final pool game against France cancelled due to Typhoon Hagibis. They do however go into the knockout match on the back of a six-game winning streak over the Wallabies, though Jones believes both of those factors count for little.

“The great thing about the World Cup is that each game is a game in itself so whatever you've done in the past doesn't really effect what -you are going to do on Saturday, and what we do know is that we will be well prepared for the game,” Jones said. “We've had a good physical prep and a good tactical prep and they are ready to go. We know Australia are the same so it's going to be some sort of a game.

“It's a bit like playing poker. You sit at the table and you get some cards and you have to deal with them. We got these cards and we've tried to deal with them as well as we could.”