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Woodward ready for reignited fire of Red Dragonhood

Chris Hewett
Thursday 06 November 2003 01:00 GMT
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First, England's bad news: Richard Hill is still injured. "When he gets on the exercise bike in the gym, he's 100 per cent fit," Clive Woodward, the head coach, reported. "But when it comes to running, he's operating at somewhere between 70 and 80 per cent."

So there you have it. The hamstrung Saracens flanker, one of the three or four most accomplished loose forwards in the world and by some distance the most versatile, could slaughter Lance Armstrong in a Tour de France time trial tomorrow, but is nowhere near ready to play Wales in the World Cup quarter-final on Sunday. Strange days indeed.

And the good news? There is plenty, if you choose to take England's latest selection at face value. Iain Balshaw, taken off the field on a stretcher here last Sunday with what eventually turned out to be a sprained ankle, is back on his feet and on the bench for the quarter-final tie with Wales at the Suncorp Stadium. Trevor Woodman has recovered from the muscle strain he suffered while weight-training on the Gold Coast and is also among the replacements. Kyran Bracken's back problems, habitually described as either "chronic" or "career-threatening", have eased sufficiently for him to play a role against the Red Dragonhood.

And then there is Mike Catt. The Bath midfielder not only failed to go the distance in training yesterday, but ended the session in hospital after taking a severe blow to the neck while performing an exercise with Bracken, of all people. "We were running into tackle bags that had gaps for our heads, and my gap seemed to disappear," Catt groaned. "It was like hitting a brick wall." As he could barely turn his head - Frankenstein's monster was blessed with greater flexibility - his participation on Sunday must remain in doubt.

Few observers would die of shock if the odd player dropped off the team sheet between now and kick-off, but that is the way of it at this stage of the tournament; the mind-games are almost as competitive as the real ones. Wales will not name their team until the last possible moment - they intend to take the tournament's 48-hour deadline literally - and at this stage, England do not have the faintest idea whether they will face the Gareth Llewellyns and Mark Taylors of long acquaintance, or be confronted by the likes of Shane Williams and Jonathan Thomas, less experienced players who were heavily involved in the wonderful uprising against New Zealand in Sydney.

While Woodward has spent most of the week insisting that Wales can pick whomever they fancy - "I think we're beyond that age-old England-Wales thing now. My focus over the last six years has been to beat the big southern hemisphere teams with some regularity," he said on Monday - the coach was startled by the sight of the Welsh backs putting four tries past the All Blacks last Sunday and is keen to second-guess Steve Hansen, his opposite number, on the selection front.

"Thirty-seven points against the All Blacks? That is no mean achievement for any side," Woodward admitted. "It was highly impressive to see Wales go through 11, 12 and 13 phases and still keep the ball moving. In light of that, our principal objective this weekend must be to maintain our defensive discipline. We conceded a soft try to the Uruguayans last time out and we're annoyed about it, but we're the No 1 defensive side in the tournament at the end of the pool stage and we'd like it to stay that way."

To that end, Woodward has opted for a thoroughly mean, hard-headed combination. Jason Leonard will start at loose-head prop - his 111th England cap, a feat that puts him alongside the great French centre Philippe Sella at the head of the all-time international list. Lewis Moody, a more energetic and aggressive spirit than Joe Worsley, will attempt to perform Hill's myriad duties on the blind-side flank; Matt Dawson, a big-game player if ever there was one, returns at scrum-half after his trials and tribulations at the hands of the unorthodox Samoans. Only Martin Corry, the ruthless Leicester forward, might have brought a harder edge to the team, but he is struggling with the hamstring injury he picked up against Uruguay.

Leonard will play a central role in maintaining the pinpoint accuracy of England's focus against opponents they know they ought to beat by 30 points. He has played the Welsh on a dozen occasions and has rarely taken a backward step against any front-row troglodyte from the valleys. He has faced nine Welsh props, some of them distinctly useful: John Davies, Dai Young, the occasionally explosive Ben Evans. And he is still there, foursquare and unyielding.

"It's not about me, it's about the team," he said, trotting out the time-honoured response to the time-honoured question about how he might view his accomplishments in years to come. "And before you ask about retirement, I haven't given a second's thought to what I might do once this tournament is over. I know I won't be playing in the next World Cup in 2007, but that's about it on the crystal-ball front."

In common with several of his countrymen, Leonard does not have the foggiest as to the identity of his personal opponent on Sunday. Will Wales pick Gethin Jenkins, the tough boy from Pontypridd who converted to the tight-head position earlier this year, or Adam Jones, the roly-poly scrummager from Abercrave who once earned a living making concrete slabs?

Does it really matter? It matters a great deal to Leonard. The venerable Harlequin did not survive 13 seasons at the sharp end by underestimating the man charged with doing him a mischief. He will be perfectly prepared, as always.

ENGLAND (v Wales, Brisbane, 10.00 Sunday): J Lewsey (Wasps); J Robinson (Sale Sharks), W Greenwood (Harlequins), M Tindall (Bath), B Cohen (Northampton); J Wilkinson (Newcastle), M Dawson (Northampton); J Leonard (Harlequins), S Thompson (Northampton), P Vickery (Gloucester), M Johnson (Leicester, capt), B Kay (Leicester), L Moody (Leicester), N Back (Leicester), L Dallaglio (Wasps). Replacements: D West (Leicester), T Woodman (Gloucester), S Shaw (Wasps), J Worsley (Wasps), K Bracken (Saracens), M Catt (Bath), I Balshaw (Bath).

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