Burgess has earned his chance to argue case for inclusion

Burgess has been picked at inside centre for the first of the three warm-up Tests leading into the home World Cup just 10 months after completing his high-profile cross-code move from rugby league.

The 26-year-old is only under consideration as a midfield option, not at blindside flanker where he played his best rugby for Bath last season, and starts between fly-half Owen Farrell and outside centre Henry Slade.

Burgess is in World Cup contention despite failing to convince in the No 12 jersey at club level, but Lancaster insists the powerful Yorkshireman deserves his chance to argue his case for selection in the 31-man squad that must be named by August 31.

“We will see if Sam can translate what he’s done in training, which is clearly good otherwise I wouldn’t have taken this chance to look at him against France,” Lancaster said.

“I’m open minded about what Sam can do – this isn’t the team that’s going to play against Fiji in our first World Cup game, this is the team to look at options.

“We need a balance in our backline, a balance of ball players, carriers and finishers. Sam ticks the ball carrier box.

“And obviously there’s the physical nature of backlines and you need to look at that element, particularly defensively.

“It’s an option for us to look at and it will be interesting to see how well Sam goes.”

Burgess and Slade are three of four uncapped players in the 23 with Calum Clark starting at openside and hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie featuring among the replacements.

Apart from the centres the remainder of the backline is set to be present at the World Cup, although wing Anthony Watson is the only guaranteed starter when the tournament opens against Fiji on September 18.

Up front several fringe contenders are given the chance to press their claims, among them prop Kieran Brookes, lock George Kruis and Clark.

England team to face France in World Cup warm-up game at Twickenham on Saturday (8pm): A Goode (Saracens); A Watson (Bath), H Slade (Exeter), S Burgess (Bath), J May (Gloucester); O Farrell (Saracens), R Wigglesworth (Saracens); M Vunipola (Saracens), R Webber (Bath), K Brookes (Northampton), G Kruis (Saracens), G Parling (Exeter), T Wood (Northampton), C Clark (Northampton), B Morgan (Gloucester).

Replacements: L Cowan-Dickie (Exeter), A Corbisiero (Northampton), D Wilson (Bath), D Attwood (Bath), J Haskell (Wasps), D Care (Harlequins), D Cipriani (Sale), Billy Twelvetrees (Gloucester).