Woodward looks past charge of the Maori

2.00pm - By CHRIS HEWETT of the Independent

The North Island locals may have branded it the "Monday night mayhem slot", but, for 22 English players whose body-clocks are still locked in British Summer Time, it is more likely to be a case of "Monday morning syndrome".

An up-country match against the New Zealand Maori in one of their traditional strongholds - in this case, the honest-to-goodness farmlands of Taranaki - is as extreme a challenge as this unforgiving sport has to offer, and, if the tourists were unaware of the depth of Maori motivation in the run-up to today's match, they have been shaken out of their ignorance by the opposition coach, Matt Te Pou.

As a figure of considerable standing in the wider New Zealand rugby community, Te Pou might have felt tempted to distance himself from the kinds of headlines he read in the weekend papers.

"The natives are restless", screamed one.

"Tourists wary as giant-killing Maori smell blood of Englishmen", yelled another.

"Time to bring the Poms down a peg or two," suggested a third.

But Te Pou did not distance himself, for the very good reason that he rather agreed with the tone of the reporting.

"We really want to have a crack at them this time," he said, conveniently ignoring the fact that the last time the Maori took on England, they cracked them from top to bottom by scoring nine tries and 62 points in a grotesquely one-sided contest.

"The Wallabies are world champions, but these guys are something else. They're the benchmark, and have been for the last 12 months. We're really keen to have a go at them."

Te Pou guided his passionate, supremely physical and highly gifted side to a convincing victory over Tonga in Albany last week, but the weakest of the front-line Pacific Island teams barely hold a candle to England in terms of prestige.

"We got straight on to the team bus once the after-match function ended and shot straight down here to New Plymouth," he continued.

"We didn't get in until well after midnight, but the boys didn't care. They wanted to start preparing."

England have been preparing too, which is probably just as well.

"It's a great fixture, a game of Test proportions," said Clive Woodward yesterday, before insisting that individual performances would have "huge relevance" in respect of selection for Saturday's one-off rumble with the All Blacks in Wellington.

The manager's second-in-command, Andy Robinson, was in equally serious mood.

"We've prepared as if for a Test," he agreed. "When you look at the people we're up against, you have to respect the Maori as a team of international quality."

Robinson has spent a good deal of time on the basics of scrummaging and close-quarter forward play since arriving here, not least because one of the Maori props, Carl Hayman, gave a distinctly useful England front row a nasty hurry-up while playing for the Barbarians at Twickenham a little over a fortnight ago.

Given that Te Pou has prioritised similarly - "It's all going to start up front, because if you don't match England in that area, you're in for a long night," he said - the contest at the set-piece should be on the explosive side of combustible.

Which is where the Phil Vickerys and Trevor Woodmans of this world come in.

At the start of the international season last November, the two Gloucester props were England's first-choice pairing; indeed, they made a winning start against the touring New Zealanders. Unfortunately, neither man made it to the Six Nations as injuries took their toll.

All things being equal, they would have expected to face the All Blacks this weekend. Things being as unequal as they are, they will have to play out of their socks against the Maori just to give themselves an outside chance of a shot at the Wallabies in Melbourne on Saturday week.

Woodward has been unusually insistent that today's proceedings will count for plenty when he comes to select his Test side, but the overwhelming likelihood is that he will stick to the combination that spread Ireland all over Lansdowne Road on Grand Slam day in Dublin some 10 weeks ago.

The hottest competition will be for places on the bench.

Will Paul Grayson do enough to secure his place as Jonny Wilkinson's understudy, or will Alex King slip past him? Will Mark Regan beat Dorian West to the second hooker's role? Will Joe Worsley stand tall against the formidable Taine Randell, thereby forcing a place in the Test 22, or will the more aggressive Martin Corry re-establish his credentials at the top level?

The Maori also have several players in point-proving mode, not least Randell, who captained New Zealand in England before Christmas, but has since lost his place in the senior squad.

Te Pou believes half a dozen of his side could, and should, press for World Cup places this autumn, notably the Auckland centre Rico Gear and the Canterbury prop Greg Feek.

Wherever England look in search of a motivational advantage, they find themselves matched by their hosts.

It is precisely this that gives the match, the first of three on this brief Antipodean gallop, its special flavour.

England would dearly love to beat the Maori, not as a means of righting the ghastly wrongs of 1998, but because they have not won a single game in New Zealand, either Test or provincial, since beating Southland in Invercargill almost exactly 18 years ago.

More to the point, a win against the odds would make the All Blacks think long and hard about the match on Saturday.

The prize is great indeed.

- INDEPENDENT