England's Billy Twelvetrees rewarded for star debut with starting place against Ireland

Twelvetrees sparkled on his Six Nations debut in the 38-18 win against Scotland last weekend when Tuilagi was sidelined by an ankle injury.

And Lancaster believes using Tuilagi as an impact player from the bench offers England their best chance of beating the Irish.

"The decision was made for me on Tuesday," Lancaster said. "Manu was injured on January 13 and his first onfield rugby session was Tuesday.

"To play a full 80 minutes against Ireland after that would be difficult.

"I looked at the best way to give the team the best chance to win on Sunday and went with Manu off the bench. I'm sure he will be a handful.

"It also says a lot about the performances by Billy and Brad last week as well.

"Billy was quietly pleased with his debut although he doesn't shout it from the rooftops. He gives us another dimension to our attacking game and he deserves to keep his place."

Wasps' James Haskell will make his first Six Nations start since 2011 at blindside flanker, with Tom Wood switching to number eight in place of injured Ben Morgan.

Tuilagi takes over on the bench from wing David Strettle while Thomas Waldrom fills the back-row slot left vacant by Haskell's promotion.

Haskell's last Six Nations start was also in Dublin, when England won the title but saw their Grand Slam ambitions wrecked by a 24-8 defeat.

The 27-year-old opted out of last year's championship to play club rugby in Japan but has worked his way back into Lancaster's plans.

Morgan limped off after 45 minutes against Scotland and Haskell won four turnovers in the space of 35 minutes.

Ireland are unchanged from last weekend's 30-22 win over Wales after centre Gordon D'Arcy and flanker Peter O'Mahony recovered from a dead leg and concussion to start, while centre Keith Earls will be on the bench after damaging his shoulder.

"The players have recovered pretty well from the Wales game. We took 48 hours off after the match and have toned down training since," said head coach Declan Kidney.