England Tour: England coach Brian Ashton yesterday announced a stitched-together 30-man squad for a two-Test tour of South Africa that he said would be both a challenge and an opportunity.
England play the full-strength Springboks on May 26th in Bloemfontein and on June 2nd in Pretoria, but Ashton will travel with a virtual third-string team due to the absence of more than 30 leading players from Leicester, Wasps and Bath, who are involved in European finals a week before the first Test.
Injuries further weakened his hand, particularly in the pack, and as a result his squad contained around a dozen current internationals, a host of new faces and a leavening of old lags who must have considered their international days to be long gone.
In the absence of Wasps' Phil Vickery and the injured Mike Catt, Jason Robinson will captain the side, while the likes of Jonny Wilkinson, Toby Flood, Jamie Noon, Mathew Tait, David Strettle and James Simpson-Daniel ensure that the backs at least will have something of a familiar look.
Among the debutant forwards is 34-year-old prop Darren Crompton, while 35-year-old hooker Mark Regan is back three years after retiring and prop Kevin Yates, also 34, is in line for his third cap a full 10 years after winning his second.
Andy Gomarsall, whose entire career has been marked by England omissions and recalls, returns for another run in the number nine shirt while winger Ben Cohen gets another chance after being overlooked last year.
"It's a golden opportunity for one or two players to show that in the heat of Bloemfontein and Pretoria that they can handle Test match rugby," Ashton said yesterday at Twickenham.
"It's going to be a massive challenge, incredibly tough, but we're not going out there to lose. We hope to put on a challenging performance. Inevitably in this sort of situation it occurs that players spring up to perform better than before. It's an opportunity to say 'I'm good enough to be in the World Cup squad'."
Ashton, who brought Robinson out of international retirement when he took over the England coaching job last year, said the winger/fullback who retired from club rugby earlier this month was the obvious choice to return to the captain's role he filled for two years under Andy Robinson.
"Jason has captained England before and we need someone with international captaincy experience," Ashton said. "He is well respected by all the other players and he proved in the Six Nations that he was back to his top form again."
Wilkinson, who was named by Andy Robinson as captain but was prevented by injury from ever taking up the role, has declared himself fully fit.
The outhalf made his first England start on the "tour from hell" in 1998 when, with many leading players rested, they were thrashed by all three Southern Hemisphere nations, including a record 76-0 humiliation by Australia.
"We are under no illusions - it is going to be an incredibly tough two-and-a-half weeks," Ashton said. "But I don't expect any of the players or management to back down from that challenge."
England Squad
BACKS- A Allen (Gloucester), M Brown (Harlequins), B Cohen (Northampton), A Farrell (Saracens), T Flood (Newcastle), A Gomarsall (Harlequins), J Noon (Newcastle), S Perry (Bristol), J Robinson (Sale Sharks, capt), P Richards (Gloucester), J Simpson-Daniel (Gloucester), D Strettle (Harlequins), M Tait (Newcastle), J Wilkinson (Newcastle).
FORWARDS- A Brown (Gloucester), P Buxton (Gloucester), M Cairns (Saracens), D Crompton (Bristol), N Easter (Harlequins), A Hazell (Gloucester), C Jones (Sale Sharks), M Lund (Sale Sharks), M Regan (Bristol), P Sanderson (Worcester), D Schofield (Sale Sharks), A Titterrell (Sale Sharks), S Turner (Sale Sharks), R Winters (Bristol), N Wood (Gloucester), K Yates (Saracens).
