Ashton is forced to make a U-turn on Lewsey

The head coach has been using Lewsey at wing but following Mark Cueto's loss of form and the hamstring injury suffered by Jason Robinson, he has decided to make the London Wasps man his third full-back in as many World Cup games.

This is despite Lewsey being dropped from the England team back in March following a nightmare game at full-back against France which left Ashton saying: "I want to see him playing for Wasps on the wing.

"Against France I thought he was playing full-back the same way he plays on the wing. He was running the same lines, looking for the same holes and supporting in the same way. It wasn't the way I want my No15 to play."

Ashton is renowned for playing people in what he considers are their best positions and, until now, has viewed Cueto as the first choice.

He favours the former footballer's all-round game ahead of Lewsey's experience in that position and a change of heart has only come about following Cueto's very public mistakes while wearing the No15 jersey.

Cueto was injured for all but the final World Cup warm-up game and then produced a performance which suggested that he could be a liability at full-back rather than a major asset.

He did not impress in the laboured win over the United States and made way for Robinson when a slight groin injury gave the selectors an excuse to leave him out.

England have tried a host of other players at full-back in the last two seasons including Tom Voyce, Mike Brown, Nick Abendanon and Olly Morgan.

Cueto will probably return on the wing against Samoa in Nantes with fit-again fly-half Jonny Wilkinson playing his first Cup match since his drop goal won the trophy for England in Sydney four years ago.

If Olly Barkley passes a fitness test on his hip injury he will take over at inside centre from Andy Farrell, while Mike Catt looks likely to be dropped 24 hours after celebrating his 36th birthday.

Dan Hipkiss, who was isolated from the rest of the squad with tonsilitis before the South African game, is likely to be handed the outside centre role.

Bristol scrum-half Shaun Perry missed England's public training session yesterday with a sore throat and so Harlequins Andy Gomarsall stands by to take over at No9.

While England have redesigned their back division, the pack will remain largely the same eight forwards who competed strongly in the scrum against the Springboks, with the only likely change seeing Joe Worsley pressing Wasps clubmate Tom Rees for the open side role.

Rees was outmuscled by the South Africans at the break down and could face similar treatment against the Samoans who are smarting after their surprise loss to Tonga on Sunday.