Woodward says he's brought his strongest squad

5.30pm

England rugby coach Sir Clive Woodward today said he would be putting out his best side for the first test against New Zealand in Dunedin next week.

The 31-strong England squad arrived in Auckland today for a two-test visit, before heading to Brisbane for a World Cup final rematch against Australia.

Mainly because of retirement or injury, the tour party is missing 14 players involved in winning the Webb Ellis Cup late last year.

But Woodward said he had brought with him the strongest contingent available, bar winger Jason Robinson.

"Even he might not have been picked because he was out on his feet," he said.

"Outside of that, the others have retired -- so they've gone, there's no point talking about that -- or they're injured.

"We're not hiding. It will be England's strongest team next Saturday, based on whom we can pick."

Among those who have retired are inspirational skipper Martin Johnson and veteran prop Jason Leonard, while star first five-eighth Jonny Wilkinson is recovering from a shoulder operation.

England will be based in Auckland during their time in New Zealand.

They will travel to Dunedin on Thursday for the test at Carisbrook on Saturday, returning to Auckland on Sunday to prepare for the second test at Eden Park the following weekend.

Woodward is due to name his test side on Tuesday.

He said he already had his line-up in mind and it was a case of seeing how the players came through their flight.

While international rugby is seen by many as having developed a four-year cycle based on the World Cup, Woodward rejected the idea that this year was the start of the build-up to the next tournament.

"Test match rugby is about the next test," he said.

"For the last World Cup, we never planned for the World Cup. We went match by match. I don't think we had any game in those four years where we didn't pick our strongest team."

Woodward said that had been the case the last time England met the All Blacks, in Wellington last year, a match the visitors won 15-13 just months before the World Cup.

"We came here full strength and we won the test match. That's what we're going to try to do next weekend."

Woodward has crossed swords with new All Black coach Graham Henry in the past, when Henry was coach of Wales.

"He's a very experienced coach," Woodward said.

"But it's his first big game with the All Blacks and he's playing against England, so it's a very big game for him."

He described the elevation of centre Tana Umaga to All Black captain as "a good call", while recalled first five-eighth Andrew Mehrtens was a "a proven test match player".

Henry is also well known to two of Woodward's assistants, Andy Robinson and Phil Larder, during their time on the 2001 British Lions' tour of Australia.

Robinson said the one difference he expected Henry to make to the All Blacks was in working to improve their traditional strengths at set pieces.

He said a pointer to that was the makeup of the All Black forwards named after the trial on Tuesday, when the Possibles' pack often had the Probables on the back foot.

"They've brought in a couple of guys from the Possibles who did perform."

- NZPA