Dallaglio comes up on blind side as Corry faces race against time

England international teams spend their lives being accused of safety-first tactics, but Andy Robinson pushed back the frontiers yesterday by naming no fewer than five potential No 8s in his 27-man squad for this weekend's Six Nations Championship match with Wales at Twickenham.

Needless to say, Lawrence Dallaglio was one of them. Should Martin Corry, the Leicester forward who replaced the celebrated Londoner in the middle of the back row and subsequently succeeded him as captain, not recover from injury in good time, Dallaglio will complete his much-discussed return from premature retirement.

He might make it irrespective of the state of Corry's dodgy ribcage, which prevented the skipper from playing in the drawn Premiership match with Sale last Saturday. The continuing back problems affecting the Worcester captain, Pat Sanderson, have opened up a vacancy on the blind-side flank, and Dallaglio has been under consideration for the role. Indeed, he started in the position when Wasps played at Bath three days ago, although the experiment had to be abandoned when John Hart suffered a shoulder dislocation 35 minutes into the game.

Robinson informed his players of the shape of the starting line-up during last week's two-day squad session at Loughborough University, but with the leading clubs refusing to release their current international contenders from league duty, he was deep in hostage-to-fortune territory. Sure enough, the Premiership fixtures took their toll. Sanderson failed to complete his team's match at Bristol, while the outside chance of the uncapped Leicester hooker George Chuter having a run against Wales evaporated when he suffered a sprained knee. Mark van Gisbergen, the Wasps full-back, has also been removed from the equation with a foot injury.

Yesterday, Robinson named a squad of 27, one more than initially planned. This seemed to indicate some lingering concern over Corry, especially as he retained James Forrester of Gloucester, Chris Jones of Sale and Joe Worsley of Wasps, all of whom know what it is to operate at No8. The final selection was scheduled to be confirmed this afternoon, after training at the match-week base in Surrey.

In addition to the hors de combat brigade, Robinson demoted five players to the A squad preparing for the match with Italy's second-string in Colleferro, a few kilometres outside Rome, on Friday night. Tom Varndell, the free-scoring Leicester wing, and Stuart Abbott, the Wasps centre, disappeared from the back-line contingent; the French-based prop Perry Freshwater, the Leicester lock Louis Deacon and the young Sale open-side flanker Magnus Lund from the forwards.

As a consequence, certain things could safely be assumed. Andy Goode, who has been scoring heavily for Leicester in recent weeks, will be Charlie Hodgson's back-up at outside-half, while Lee Mears of Bath will understudy Steve Thompson at hooker. Furthermore, Mike Tindall and Jamie Noon appear likely to continue at centre, despite the disquiet surrounding their one-dimensional contribution during the autumn internationals.

In fact, Robinson went out of his way to underline his faith in the status quo. Asked if he had changed his opinion on midfield matters in the light of the November Tests, he said: "I was pleased with the players in the autumn. The important thing is that this is about whole-team development. It's about playing with speed of ball; of understanding that if we get quick ball, the midfield combinations have more time to exploit the space we're trying to attack."

Of the dropped players, Abbott can consider himself more unlucky than most. The "silent assassin", as Wasps supporters christened him, has been quiet since playing a peripheral part in the World Cup win 26 months ago; rather like his fellow free spirit from Gloucester, James Simpson-Daniel, he has spent more time in the treatment room than on the pitch. But he looked stiletto-sharp at Bath last Saturday and could, if he works up a head of steam in Italy on Friday, challenge for a place in the élite party for the Six Nations game in the same neck of the woods in 11 days' time.

The A squad, which Robinson sees as a major plank of his planning for the 2007 World Cup, is strong indeed. There is a smattering of capped players - the Bath prop Duncan Bell, the Leeds lock Tom Palmer, the Leicester centre Ollie Smith - along with the brightest and best from this season's Premiership, including the high-octane Bristol scrum-half Shaun Perry and the fast-improving Northampton centre Jon Clarke.

Shane Drahm is also in, despite the lashings of Australian blood pumping through his veins. After outside-half stints with Bristol, Northampton and Worcester, he has fulfilled the qualification criteria and is free to play representative rugby for his adopted country.