Injured Moody set to miss England opener

Martin Johnson (left) and Lewis Moody look on during a training session in Dunedin (GETTY IMAGES)

England trained at rickety old Carisbrook, known in its heyday as the "House of Pain", on their first afternoon in New Zealand's South Island – an appropriately excruciating choice of venue as far as their captain, Lewis Moody, was concerned. Moody completed the warm-up but did precious little else and will therefore miss this Saturday's opening World Cup match with Argentina at the swanky, new £100m Otago Stadium on the other side of town. It was, to say the very least, an inauspicious start to this most significant of weeks.

Martin Johnson, who played many a game alongside Moody at both club and international level and understands how he ticks, agreed that the flanker's persistent difficulties with his right knee were now the cause of serious frustration. "Lewis is not happy," acknowledged the manager. "His disappointment is understandable, particularly now we're in a World Cup environment, which tends to heighten the emotions. We hoped, as did he, that things would be right for this weekend's game, but he's a bit short.

"We're not trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes here: we're not dealing with an exact science. In the end, this is the first game in what we hope will be a long tournament. You can force these things, but there's no reason to do so. It was a pretty straightforward decision to make."

Johnson was unwilling to confirm his choices of substitute leader and fill-in breakaway, but the centre Mike Tindall is the obvious candidate for the first role, especially after performing it with a high degree of success in the victory over Ireland in Dublin 10 days ago, while James Haskell wore the No 7 shirt throughout the Six Nations, a tournament England happened to win for the first time since 2003. All the same, Johnson would far rather have his captain available than not.