Tait adds to Johnson's troubles

The whole point of the new multimillion pound agreement between the Rugby Football Union and the Premiership clubs was to give Martin Johnson, the England manager and principal selector, everything he needed – clarity, continuity, oodles of time with his elite players – to re-establish the red rose army as the best international team in the game. Best laid plans, and all that. Yesterday, Johnson lost two more first-choice players to injury, and will therefore contest this weekend's match with the Pacific Islands at Twickenham with a team very different to the one he envisaged at the start of October.

Mathew Tait of Sale, a man with no settled position who nevertheless regularly outperforms every other England back irrespective of the role he is asked to play, will not recover from his hamstring injury in time for the game at Twickenham – the first of a four-match programme that will grow progressively more challenging as the month unfolds. To make matters worse, Luke Narraway, the Gloucester No 8 who was one of a tiny minority who successfully surfed the sea of ordure in which the national team found itself drowning during the brief trip to New Zealand last June, is also hamstrung. He too will miss out on Saturday.

Johnson had been hoping to run Tait at full-back, the most pressing of England's problem positions, just as he had intended to give James Simpson-Daniel of Gloucester a chance on the left wing and Jonny Wilkinson a recall at outside-half. (Needless to say, these most orthopaedically challenged of players are also hors de combat). With the Wasps forwards Tom Palmer and James Haskell currently off their games, the manager finds himself prey to the two "uncontrollables" no amount of money can address: form and fitness.

As a result, there could be as many as five new caps in Johnson's first match-day squad, to be named today. Ugo Monye, the Harlequins wing, and Riki Flutey, the Wasps centre, are confidently expected to be included in the starting formation, and there may be a third fresh back in the 24-year-old Delon Armitage of London Irish, called in last week as cover for Tait but now in the frame at No 15. Johnson could play Danny Cipriani – or Danny Celebriani, as he is now known at Wasps – in the full-back role, as a number of senior Premiership coaches suggest, but the manager must be tempted to keep him in his more familiar position of outside-half.

Up front, two uncapped forwards are in Johnson's thinking: the Northampton hooker Dylan Hartley and the London Irish line-out specialist Nick Kennedy. Hartley is certain of a seat on the bench at the very least while Kennedy is mixing it with two Wasps locks, Palmer and Simon Shaw, in the fight to play alongside Steve Borthwick, the captain. In the back row, Nick Easter of Harlequins is a strong candidate for the No 8 berth. Easter beat Lawrence Dallaglio, no less, to the starting position at last year's World Cup, but was left out of Johnson's elite squad in July. Narraway's misfortune, Haskell's lack of form and an apparent cooling of the England coaching team's enthusiasm for the young Leicester ball-carrier Jordan Crane have propelled him into recall territory.

It remains to be seen whether Johnson drafts in any of the eight players he released from the training party last week. All but the injured hooker George Chuter, replaced by David Paice of London Irish, are now back in camp, with the versatile Josh Lewsey an outside bet for a seat on the bench.