Rugby union: Lomu looms for suffering England

IT GETS worse. England swapped the molten frying pan of Brisbane for the untameable fire of All Black country yesterday and were immediately greeted with the news that three of New Zealand's most precious rugby treasures - Robin Brooke, Michael Jones and dear old Jonah Lomu - had recovered from their various pains and strains and were available for the first Test in Dunedin on Saturday week. Predictably, Clive Woodward resisted the temptation to throw an immediate celebration party at the team hotel in Rotorua.

As if they had not suffered enough, the tourists also encountered wall to wall television coverage of the All Black trial match at North Harbour's spectacular new stadium in Albany. Lomu did not put in an appearance - he is under consideration for New Zealand A duty in Hamilton this weekend - but the performances of four of his rival wings were of such stupendous quality that it will scarcely matter if the big man spontaneously combusts in the build-up to the Carisbrook confrontation. Jeff Wilson scored two tries for the "probables", as did Tana Umaga, while Glen Osborne and the mind-boggling Joeli Vidiri looked business-like in the extreme.

"I'd say we have more strength in depth on the wing than anywhere else; we might pick any two of six Test-quality performers and not suffer a fall-off," said John Hart, the All Black coach, who emphasised that Lomu's recent injury problems were in no way linked to his long-running kidney condition, which had been effectively neutralised. "I think we can say that England will see something of Jonah," he added mischievously.

If the thought of Lomu Revisited is almost too much to bear for a callow England outfit still being kept awake at night by visions of Wallaby tries, Hart was at pains to pay the visitors a degree of respect. "They'll be a better side in Dunedin than they were in Brisbane," he predicted. "The issue for them in the Wallaby Test was the pace of the game. These players came from a club environment and had to make an immediate step up against an Australian side that performed ominously well. It was a tough lesson, but they'll get to grips with it.

"I'm sure we'll get a contest at Carisbrook, although I have to say that we're disappointed that so many leading English names are not here; in the light of the way they played before Christmas, not least against us, there was huge public expectation in advance of this trip. But there are extenuating circumstances. We've just had a trial without 17 injured players. Modern rugby is a hard, hard game.''

Hart would have no truck with the mocking tone prevalent across the Tasman Sea, where the motor-mouth branch of the Australian Rugby Union was still operating at full decibel level yesterday. "There's a challenge out there for the All Blacks: can they crack the ton?" said John O'Neill, the ARU chief executive, who added that the Wallabies might go elsewhere for their centenary opposition next summer. "Are we going to have another Test like the one on Saturday? No way. There are other options: France, perhaps, or Italy.''

All of which left Hart cold. "It's uncalled for in my view," he said. "I was surprised by much of the outburst from Australia when the England squad was first named and I still take the view that it is not for us to pass judgement on the problems of other countries. We have problems of our own to solve.''

And what problems. Should it be Wilson and Lomu on the wings, or Wilson and Osborne perhaps? Just at the moment, Woodward would happily swap any of his migraine-sized headaches for 10 of those currently afflicting his All Black counterpart. One coach's quandary can sometimes be another coach's idea of heaven.