Two-tour Lion Andrew Sheridan returns to the England side to face France in the RBS 6 Nations but there is no place for captain Lewis Moody who once again misses out through injury.
Moody, 32, missed England's first two Championship games against Wales and Italy because of a knee injury before returning to action on Saturday for club side Bath. But the injury has once again flared up.
Sheridan, who toured New Zealand and South Africa with the Lions, has recovered from the back injury that ruled him out of the clash against Italy and he replaces Alex Corbisiero
“Lewis’ our captain, we all know what he brings to the team and he's worked really hard to get back, everyone was confident but these things happen, unfortunately,” said Johnson.
"He's disappointed, but we haven't had him so far and the other guys have done a good job, we're fully happy with James Haskell and Tom Wood.
"It's a consistent team selection, there's lots of guys playing well in the Premiership and putting pressure on the but we thought this was the right group to go with."
France coach Marc Lievremont has stoked the fires ahead of the clash by insisting he does not like the English but Johnson has laughed those comments off.
“I quite like it, it's international sport and it's about backing your country,” said Johnson.
"Everybody's looking forward to it, the opening game was a big one and now we've won two but we're not getting carried away.
"They've won eight on the trot in the championship, it's a couple of years ago since they last lost.
"They can beat anyone in the world, people talk about which team's going to turn up – well, we can't affect that until five o'clock. We can only affect which England turns up – and it's going to be the best one."
England: B Foden; C Ashton, M Tindall (capt), S Hape, M Cueto; T Flood, B Youngs; A Sheridan, D Hartley, D Cole, L Deacon, T Palmer, T Wood, J Haskell, N Easter.
Replacements: S Thompson, A Corbisiero, S Shaw, H Fourie, D Care, J Wilkinson, M Banahan.
*Bold denotes a former British and Irish Lion
