ENGLAND SQUAD NEWS:TWO NAMES leapt from the 32-strong list of players who are fit enough to represent England this autumn. Jonny Wilkinson and Courtney Lawes are at opposite ends of the Twickenham spectrum in terms of experience but their presence in Martin Johnson's squad offers the England manager a glimpse of a brighter horizon beyond the dark injury bulletins of recent days.
If Wilkinson’s presence feels like something of a novelty, it is because it is precisely so. He has not been seen in international rugby since his walk-on part against Ireland more than 19 months ago. Now, it falls to the outhalf to prove to Australia on Saturday week that his familiar ability to kick the Wallabies where it hurts has yet to desert him.
It says everything about Wilkinson’s successful rehabilitation from the dislocated knee which sidelined him for most of last season that his new employers Toulon will be pained to see him return across the English Channel.
Wilkinson will notice that an awful lot of familiar faces will be nowhere in sight. Twelve senior squad members are unavailable and Mike Tindall is the only fellow backline survivor from the 2003 World Cup.
Delon Armitage, Nick Easter, Harry Ellis, Toby Flood, Riki Flutey, Lee Mears, Olly Morgan, Tom Rees, Simon Shaw, Andrew Sheridan, Phil Vickery and Julian White are all hors de combat and both Tindall and Joe Worsley, fellow World Cup winners, have recently been sidelined.
It has opened doors in numerous positions, nowhere more intriguingly than the secondrow. Lawes, at 20, is the biggest bolter on the back of his forthright efforts for Northampton this season and now has a chance to impress England’s most famous lock at first hand. Johnson will not want to risk breaking Lawes by selecting him prematurely.
It was confirmed yesterday that Easter will be unavailable for four weeks, effectively ruling him out of the entire autumn programme against the Wallabies, Argentina and New Zealand.
Sheridan, meanwhile, is almost certain to miss the entire Six Nations, according to a leading UK orthopaedic surgeon.
Sheridan was ruled out for four months by his club Sale last Monday, after it was revealed he required a full reconstruction of his left shoulder. But Simon Moyes, who works at the Wellington Hospital, believes a minimum six months is more realistic.
ENGLAND SQUADForwards: S Armitage (London Irish), Barnes (Bath), Bell (Bath), Blaze (Leicester), Borthwick (Saracens, capt), Chuter (Leicester), Crane (Leicester), Croft (Leicester), L Deacon (Leicester), Hartley (Northampton), Haskell (Stade Francais), Kay (Leicester), Lawes (Northampton), Moody (Leicester), Payne (Wasps), Thompson (Brive), Wilson (Bath), Worsley (Wasps).
Backs: Banahan (Bath), Care (Harlequins), Cueto (Sale), Foden (Northampton), Geraghty (Northampton), Goode (Brive), Hipkiss (Leicester), Hodgson (London Irish), Monye (Harlequins), Strettle (Harlequins), Tait (Sale), Tindall (Gloucester), Wigglesworth (Sale), Wilkinson (Toulon).
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