Despite facing a Georgia side stripped of three players who stayed with their French clubs for financial reasons and another trio out injured, England have paid the former Soviet republic the compliment of picking a fullstrength side.
This is a necessity with the crucial pool match with South Africa on 18 October and Woodward always insisted his strongest line-up would be chosen. Key players, such as captain Martin Johnson and points-scoring machine Jonny Wilkinson only played half the warm-up game against France at Twickenham last month and need match time before tackling the Springboks.
The nature of Georgia's game means that England will get a physical work-out before facing the aggressive South Africans, who lost their heads during a humiliating 53-3 defeat at Twickenham last November.
Although Georgia had a mass brawl with Italy in their last game, they are not expected to resort to Springbok-style tactics in their first World Cup match.
While England have struggled to put together more than a basic outline of Georgia's strengths and weaknesses, their opponents will know everything about England.
The Georgia match marks Lawrence Dallaglio's return to England action following a hamstring problem that meant he was not used in any of the three World Cup warm-up matches with Wales and France. The London Wasps captain last pulled on the England No8 jersey against Australia in Melbourne and now finds himself two caps behind fellow back-row members Richard Hill and Neil Back, who both boast 60 appearances for their country.
Leicester flanker Lewis Moody has been chosen ahead of Joe Worsley, of Wasps, on the bench where Iain Balshaw, fit again after his lengthy injury problems, is preferred to Dan Luger.
England continued their build-up with a training session under clear blue skies at Hale School in Perth today and temperatures are expected to soar into the mid-80s by Thursday.
England team v Georgia, Sunday
J Lewsey (London Wasps) J Robinson (Sale) W Greenwood (Harlequins) M Tindall (Bath) B Cohen (Northampton) J Wilkinson (Newcastle) M Dawson (Northampton) T Woodman (Gloucester) S Thompson (Northampton) P Vickery (Gloucester) M Johnson (Leicester, capt) B Kay (Leicester) R Hill (Saracens) N Back (Leicester) L Dallaglio (London Wasps).
Replacements: K Bracken (Saracens), P Grayson (Northampton), I Balshaw (Bath), M Regan (Leeds), J Leonard (Harlequins), D Grewcock (Bath), L Moody (Leicester)
