McLean to skipper experienced England line-up

Street has included 12 survivors from the 2010 Rugby World Cup in his starting line-up with a further two World Cup players on the bench.

England last played the Black Ferns in the final of that tournament with New Zealand taking a narrow 13-10 victory.

Darlington Mowden Park Sharks fly-half Katy McLean will captain England with Maggie Alphonsi(pictured)as vice-captain. In the pack Vicky Fleetwood, who has five caps, starts at hooker with the experienced Rochelle Clark and Sophie Hemming making up the front row. Tamara Taylor, Rowena Burnfield, Rebecca Essex, Alphonsi and Sarah Hunter, who most recently captained England in a two-test series against France, make up the rest of the England pack.

Over 250 caps is shared between Englands backs, which sees the likes of McLean and Danielle Waterman return to the starting line-up so England can also boast a tried and tested backs unit.

Streetsaid: I have picked a really experienced side with this being our strongest available 22 at the moment. We have also got some younger faces in this team too but by going to France earlier this month that exposed them to some big pressure games. It was a testing week for them but their ability to perform in those conditions shows why they deserve to be in this squad.

On Saturday I think the key battle will be at the breakdown and it will also be important for us to control the ball but also the tempo of the game. Weve had a week in camp leading up to this game and that has been invaluable preparation. We have been able to work on various aspects of our game and to iron out any issues from this seasons programme.

Certainly over the past 12 months we have made a conscious effort to improve all areas of our game, especially game understanding. We have learned lessons from the 2010 world cup final, where we didnt play that well, and I am certainly expecting us to be a much stronger side this time around.

Since the world cup final England have gone on to dominate the Six Nations Championship, with a sixth consecutive title and Grand Slam, whilst also taking the top honours at the Nations Cup. New Zealand, however, have not played an international test match since that game, though for Street he is by no means underestimating this Black Ferns side.

He added: New Zealand may not have played an international test match for 14 months, but that is exactly where they were at before the world cup so you can always rely on them to pull out the performance when it matters. For most teams not playing regular international rugby would affect them but for New Zealand it never seems to matters.

Saturdays game marks the first of three test matches between England and New Zealand this autumn. The two sides will also clash on November 29th and December 3rd at Esher RFC.

Tickets for the game at Twickenham on November 26th are available fromTicketmaster.co.ukand group booking are available from the RFU by calling 0871 22 22 017, option 6. Prices range from 65 to 35. Junior tickets cost 15.

England team to play New Zealand.

15 Danielle Waterman (Worcester)14 Katherine Merchant (Worcester)13 Emily Scarratt (Lichfield)12 Kimberley Oliver (Bristol)11 Michaela Staniford (Wasps)10 Katy McLean (Darlington Mowden Park Sharks) (C)9 La Toya Mason (Wasps)1 Rochelle Clark (Worcester)2 Victoria Fleetwood (Lichfield)3 Sophie Hemming (Bristol)4 Rowena Burnfield (Richmond)5 Tamara Taylor( Darlington Mowden Park Sharks)6 Rebecca Essex (Richmond)7 Margaret Alphonsi (Saracens) (VC)8 Sarah Hunter (Lichfield)

Replacements:

16 Amy Turner (Richmond)17 Laura Keates (Worcester)18 Marlie Packer (Bristol)19 Alexandra Matthews (Richmond)20 Natasha Hunt(Lichfield)21 Rachael Burford Richmond)22 Kay Wilson (Richmond)