Jonny Wilkinson, a superstar sportsman blessed with the dedication of a monk and the wild streak of a middle-ranking civil servant, will captain England for the foreseeable future - a future the world champions feared they might be forced to face without the services of their peerless marksman-in-chief.

A blank space in the visitors' book where the name Woodward used to be will not be the only change when the England squad check into their Bagshot hotel tomorrow. The 54 players mustering under Andy Robinson's charge for the first time show a more or less even split between those with a World Cup winner's medal to their name, and those whose dreams are driven by achieving a similar feat in 2007.

Incite, the sports text messaging group which hired England rugby star Lawrence Dallaglio as a director, has been censured for concealing the perilous state of its finances from investors.

When Lawrence Dallaglio walked into the late-night bar of the Hilton Hotel in Brisbane a couple of hours after England's 36-point defeat at the hands of the Wallabies last June and pronounced himself "suicidal", no one among his handful of listeners felt compelled to phone the Samaritans on his behalf.

Coaches of the other Six Nations teams watching the upheaval in the England camp last week would have taken more heart from the retirement of Lawrence Dallaglio than they would have from the departure of Sir Clive Woodward.

The fall of the House of Woodward, a calamity in progress since the final whistle blew on England's last-minute World Cup victory in Australia last November, produced another significant pile of sporting rubble yesterday when it emerged that Lawrence Dallaglio was preparing to announce his retirement from international rugby.

The England captain, Lawrence Dallaglio, looks set to announce his international retirement today.