KEY POINTS:
Brian Ashton, the England coach, openly admitted that he had yet to settle on his strongest team ahead of the World Cup - which is hardly an ideal state of affairs with the tournament less than six weeks distant.
The mist is beginning to clear ever so slightly,
though.
Mark Cueto of Sale is now in pole position to start proceedings as the senior full-back; Dan Hipkiss of Leicester is a strong runner for one of the outside centre berths despite his current uncapped status; and Andy Farrell of Saracens, the finest rugby league specialist ever to switch codes, has another heaven-sent opportunity to announce himself as a half-decent union player and force some poor unfortunate, possibly a player as good as Toby Flood, into selectorial no man's land.
This intriguing trio will mix it with Wales at Twickenham on Sunday (NZ time) in the first of three warm-up internationals.
As the last of these fixtures, against France in Marseilles on 18 August, will be played four days after the cut-off point for finalising the 30-man party, there are only 160 minutes of point-proving time left to those who crave a place.
Under the circumstances, a strong individual performance this weekend will go a very long way towards securing Ashton's favours.
The coach announced that Cueto, who was a Lions Test wing two summers ago, was keen on a permanent move to full-back.
He also indicated that Mike Tindall, a World Cup winner in 2003, was now so far behind the red rose peloton in terms of recovering from the broken leg he suffered while playing for Gloucester at Newcastle three-and-a-half months ago that an early call might be made on his departure from the squad.
"I'll have to talk to the medical team about Mike," he said, with a resigned look in his eyes.
Tindall's continuing problems have made Hipkiss one of the more talked-about men in the party.
A major component in Leicester's title-winning side last season, the 25-year-old midfielder broke more tackles and made more yards through the heavy traffic than any back in the Premiership, give or take the odd brick-outhouse Pacific islander.
Notoriously reluctant to discuss his own attributes in public, Hipkiss went out of his way to play down the expectation.
"I'm simply going from one training session to the next, working my way through a process," he said.
It was the most illuminating of his comments.
Farrell was more forthcoming.
He agreed with Ashton's assertion that he was free of injury for the first time since leaving Wigan more than two years ago, saying: "I've been training for five or six weeks, three or four sessions a day, and I'm as happy as I can be.
"I don't believe the union game has seen the rugby I'm capable of playing, but I'm encouraged by the fact that I'm fitter now than at any point since 2004.
"This is a highly competitive group of players, but there has been no selfishness, no goings-on, not a bad word said by anyone. It's a good environment, intense but enjoyable."
Ashton would dearly love to see a commanding display from Farrell on Sunday.
The coach admires the 32-year-old northerner's leadership skills and believes that World Cups are for hardened professional sportsmen oozing experience and authority, rather than callow youngsters who barely know what it is to buy their own beer.
"We want people who are adaptable, but the overriding thing is to choose those who have the mental toughness to handle the big occasion," he said.
He firmly believes Farrell is one such character.
If he knows this to be so Sunday, he will be mightily relieved.
One of Farrell's principal problems during the Six Nations debacle in Dublin last February was the failure of the England pack to engage anything other than reverse gear, but the forward unit should spend a healthy percentage of Sunday's game on the front foot, given the ballast in each row of the scrum.
Andrew Sheridan and Phil Vickery are among the biggest props in the game, while the loose combination of Martin Corry, Joe Worsley and Nick Easter would knock most opponents clean off the scales.
And in the engine room? Why, it's Simon Shaw, all 19st plenty of him.
And if Shaw has his way, he will make a World Cup squad as of right for the first time in four attempts.
"I've always believed in my own ability; the trick is to get other people to believe in it," said the man cruelly dumped by Sir Clive Woodward before the 2003 tournament.
"Clive often told me I was too similar a player to Martin Johnson, but if he'd been able to pick two Johnsons in his side, I don't think it would have worried him."
Good point, well made.
- INDEPENDENT
