Lewis Moody would've loved to have played with England fly-half Owen Farrell

Lewis Moody has admitted that Owen Farrell is the England fly-half he would have loved to have played with.

Farrell has been re-called into Stuart Lancaster's starting line-up for Saturday's crunch game against Wales at the expense of George Ford, who had been in possession of the number 10 shirt since the 2014 Autumn Internationals.  

Speaking to Sky Sports News HQ, the 2003 Rugby World Cup winner with England, Moody confessed that the Saracens man's dogged personality makes him the fly-half he would have loved to have lined up alongside.

He said: "I think it is a hard call on Ford because it is one game in.

"Maybe the nerves of the opening ceremony, the changing room, the hour inside when all the music is going on, he probably would have liked another opportunity to play but that's international rugby and Farrell now gets the opportunity.

"I have to admit Farrell at fly-half, I would have loved to have played with, tenacious, right in the opposition's face all the time and an aggressive tackler.

"If you speak to the guys around the camp and you see how Owen played when he came on, he is clearly a hungry individual to reclaim that number 10 shirt.

"He had a fantastic game when he came off the bench at the weekend, the offload for Mike Brown's try, the tenacity in defence; generally his ball play was another level up from what we have seen for a while."

Outside Farrell, Jonathan Joseph misses out with a peck injury, forcing Lancaster to change up the dynamic of his midfield, selecting the physically imposing duo of Jonathan Joseph and Brad Barritt.

"It's a huge blow because he offers something we have been missing from the England side for so long, since Will Greenwood retired really" Moody said. "We have been craving that distributor that person with a deft touch to find the gap and an offload and he's really had that and the acceleration to score tries.

"Obviously, there is now a change up, Ford has gone, Farrell is in, Burgess, a big beefy Sam Burgess comes into the centre with Brad Barritt., who is also a big lump of a player.

"It will be really interesting for me to see how they work; they are an untried pairing Barritt and Burgess. It would have been quite interesting to see Slade slip in there because Burgess and Slade went very well in the warm-up game but coach has to make the tough decisions and he has gone with the big man."

The Burgess inclusion has gathered criticism from some, believing that the former rugby league man is too inexperienced to be thrown in to the pressure environment of a crunch World Cup encounter with Wales, however Moody believes that the was the correct choice to replace his club mate Joseph.

Moody added: "I think if you are going to pick him and you're going to go with him, you're going to put him on the bench you've got to be prepared to start him.

"I think when he came on against Ireland in the warm-up game, massive hit to turn the ball over, that's the impact he can have defensively. In attack actually, at the weekend you saw him getting through the gain line, looking for the offload, a couple of times it wasn't on and then round the back to Wood. As England were going for that last bonus point try, he was the catalyst to keep that move going.

"For me definitely the person to be in there, he's a natural born winner for me, Sam Burgess but it is who you put alongside him. Let's see how Barritt goes tonight with Burgess, see how that combination works, it may be a change you never know."

Rugby legends Lewis Moody and Gareth Thomas have listed their properties on Airbnb this September and are opening their doors to give Rugby fans the ultimate World Cup experience and raising money for the Lewis Moody Foundation and Childline in the process.