KEY POINTS:
South African rugby types, never slow to pick on the little guy, have dismissed Brian Ashton's below-strength band of tourists as "plumbers and decorators" who would rather have all their teeth removed than play in this weekend's opening test in Bloemfontein.
This is plain wrong. For one thing, Shaun Perry is an electrician; for another, the reigning world champions feel they can emerge from this beast of a trip with reputations intact. It is a far cry from believing they can beat the Springboks, who are likely to field a far stronger side on Sunday than the one that did for England at Twickenham in November.
As Ashton said yesterday in naming a side featuring three new caps in the starting line-up and another three on the bench: "By the time I return home, I need to be clear what certain people are capable of contributing to England in a hostile test environment ahead of the World Cup in September. This is an opportunity for people to make a case for a place in the training squad to demonstrate they should go forward to the final squad for France."
Prominent among these is Saracens centre Andy Farrell, a league exponent of undeniable majesty whose form in the union game has yet to persuade the cynics that he is anything other than an expensive white elephant. His last performance at this level, against Ireland at Croke Park during the Six Nations Championship, shed little light on one of the more vexed selectorial issues of the moment.
He did not go missing when the wheels parted company from the wagon - indeed, he shouldered more responsibility and made more of a fight of it than anyone - but his lack of pace was cruelly exposed. Here, on the fast going of the high veld, life will be more challenging rather than less.
Ashton might easily have picked Toby Flood, of Newcastle, in the No 12 position, partly because he is well used to playing alongside Jonny Wilkinson, his club colleague, and partly because the 21-year-old midfielder was one of the more obvious successes in a curate's egg of a Six Nations. In explaining his decision, the coach made it clear Farrell still has something to prove.
The new caps in the starting XV are Harlequins fullback Mike Brown, Gloucester prop Nick Wood and Sale lock Dean Schofield. The third of these could not be more deserving, having performed manfully throughout a Premiership campaign that saw the titleholders ravaged by injury. It will be devilishly difficult for Schofield to break into the elite with the likes of Tom Palmer, Simon Shaw, Danny Grewcock - who was cited yesterday for allegedly hitting Clermont Auvergne's Thibault Privat in Sunday's European Challenge Cup final - Steve Borthwick, Louis Deacon and Ben Kay resting up back home, but if he plays a couple of blinders against Bakkies Botha and Victor Matfield, the most potent second-row pairing in the sport, the world could yet be his oyster.
On the bench, Darren Crompton, the 34-year-old Bristol prop, joins his fellow Memorial Ground tight forward, Roy Winters, and Saracens hooker Matt Cairns in search of a first cap. Crompton was on the "tour from hell" in 1998, the last time England sent a seriously weakened party to these parts, but failed to make the cut for the important matches.
Back then, he must have been thankful for small mercies. Now, he is aching for a chance.
Yesterday's training run was a fiery affair. "It was a little on the competitive side, especially as it was meant to be a non-contact session," said Ashton, who made the mistake of joining the recalled hooker, Mark Regan, for the warm-up and received a bloody nose for his trouble. "But we're fully aware of the enormity of the physical challenge we face. We have to accept it, confront it and find a way round it."
Seven years ago in this country, Wilkinson missed the first test against the Boks because of a bout of gastric trouble. Yesterday, he missed training with a milder strain of something similar. A loosening of the stomach is not unusual in the days before a meeting with these opponents but it is surely encouraging that the outside-half is not running to the loo quite as often as he was in 2000.
- INDEPENDENT
