The embarrassment of losing by a record-equalling margin to France prompted England's head coach Andy Robinson to lose patience with six members of the squad yesterday. The team to face Ireland contains only seven occupying the same starting positions as in Paris.

Josh Lewsey, who had missed only three of England's last 34 Tests before this Six Nations began, has been axed from the 22-man squad altogether and Mike Tindall, Matt Dawson, Danny Grewcock, Julian White and Steve Thompson have also paid the price for the 31-6 defeat at the Stade de France. Remarkably, all six were part of England's World Cup-winning odyssey in 2003.

With Charlie Hodgson suffering from a hamstring strain, Andy Goode comes in at outhalf and Matt Stevens moves to tighthead prop.

Not since coaches Martin Green and Mike Weston made eight changes to the side hammered 33-6 at Murrayfield in 1986 has there been such drastic English reaction to a single championship result.

The main beneficiaries this time are Wasps' Stuart Abbott, Tom Voyce and Simon Shaw, the Bath hooker Lee Mears, the Sale prop Andrew Sheridan and Leicester's scrumhalf Harry Ellis; all except Abbott came on as replacements in Paris.

By leaping aboard the selectorial merry-go-round, however, Robinson has left himself vulnerable should the team misfire spectacularly again. Francis Baron, the RFU's chief executive, had a meeting with Robinson yesterday to review the Paris debacle and admitted a third successive disappointing defeat could not be tolerated. "Two is enough," he said.

The RFU's Strategic Plan demands England win four of the next eight Six Nations titles, two grand slams and two-thirds of all tests against Southern Hemisphere opposition. Baron confirmed Robinson was contracted until after next year's World Cup but added all RFU employees were subject to annual review.

Leicester points machine Goode takes over from the stricken Hodgson, and will make his first Six Nations start, along with Abbott and Mears.

Newcastle outhalf Dave Walder has been drafted onto the bench as cover for Goode.

Robinson accepts the outcry since last Sunday is fully justified.

"There are a lot of upset and distraught people in the squad, as are the public, and rightly so," said Robinson. "This England team is moving forward - it has taken a couple of backward steps - but it is something we will be able to sort out, and making these changes is right to give players an opportunity.

"When you lose a couple of games, you expect the flak to happen. It is human nature, and it occurs. It has strengthened my resolve, and I have total belief in myself and what we are trying to achieve with England."

"We didn't turn up last weekend. The guys are hurting inside and they are desperate to get on the pitch and show the last couple of weeks have just been bad days in the office.

"I did not expect that result. I am just disappointed for the players because after the Italy game and going into the Scotland match, I really believed we could achieve something big this season. Unfortunately, through individual errors, we have lost an opportunity to do something special. The one thing I do is look in the mirror and look at myself first, and all the players and management are the same.

"That is why I think they are quality people."

In terms of Robinson's changes, Lewsey has paid the price for a startling form loss, emphasised when his defensive blunder helped gift France a try after just 43 seconds in Paris.

Tindall's demotion was also widely expected after he failed to fire in a midfield partnership alongside Jamie Noon, and Noon now has a new centre colleague in Abbott.

Goode, among only a handful of players to have amassed more than 1,000 Premiership points, has featured three times for England off the bench.

Shaw, meanwhile, wins a 34th cap at the surprise expense of Grewcock, but like Abbott, he has not started an England Test since the 2004 summer tour of New Zealand and Australia.

Mears is promoted after four outings off the bench, yet Thompson's omission is also a shock.

Robinson, though, has resisted any temptation to dabble with the back row, retaining the combination of Joe Worsley, Louis Moody and skipper Martin Corry, while keeping Lawrence Dallaglio among the substitutes for a fifth successive Six Nations game.

"I felt it right to reward players who I think have been playing well and to give players an opportunity, particularly in terms of playing at home," he said.