New generation may leave Leonard short of milestone

Three games away from 100 England caps, the veteran prop could be squeezed out of the front row by younger rivals

Life as a sporting pit pony is not much of a life at all, being dark and miserable and brutal. The prevailing smell is none too pleasant either, as anyone who scrummages for his supper will readily confirm. Yet, at some point during the afternoon of 23 November, when the Springboks parade their latest vintage before another full house at Twickenham, England's most celebrated workhorse may find himself perfumed with the scent of red roses and illuminated in a shaft of golden light. It may be Jason Leonard's day of days.

If Clive Woodward, the England manager, had a single corpuscle of sentimentality in his veins, there would be no "may" about it. Leonard, one of the few committed Harlequins spawned in the cravat-free republic of Barking, is three England caps away from a century that would cement his name in the record books of rugby union for as long as the game is played.

Only two men, Philippe Sella of France and David Campese of Australia, have made three-figured contributions to a national cause, and neither of them bore the kind of load Leonard has been forced to shoulder these last 12 years or so. No forward has made it to a hundred for his country – Sean Fitzpatrick, the great All Black who notoriously hooked and refereed simultaneously, managed 92 caps for New Zealand – and while Leonard can claim 102 if his five Lions Test appearances are included in the tally, he would dearly love to reach the ultimate landmark in the white shirt of his dreams.

Appearances against Australia, New Zealand and South Africa in consecutive weeks this autumn would do the job nicely, and nobody would bat an eyelid in protest if "Jase" trundled off the bench in the 79th minute of each match. Unfortunately, Woodward regards soft-soap selection in the way Mrs Thatcher regarded trade unionism – that is to say, as an evil worthy of suppression at every turn.

Having forfeited his starting place to Leicester's Graham Rowntree following the Six Nations shambles in Dublin 11 months ago, Leonard's position in Woodward's match-day 22 is now under serious threat from a new generation of front-rowers, all of them at least eight years younger and one of them, the precocious Robbie Morris of Northampton, 14 years his junior. Two of his would-be usurpers, David Flatman of Saracens and Trevor Woodman of Gloucester, have already been capped. Another, the London Irish prop Michael Worsley, is considered by some the best loose-head technician since...well, Leonard, as it happens.

All of the above, plus the West Country tight-head specialists Phil Vickery and Julian White, have been included in Woodward's 53-strong élite training squad, so the battle is well and truly joined. "Yes, I believe Jason still has a contribution to make," the manager said this week. "I wouldn't have named him had I not been of that opinion. It isn't the way I operate. While I agree that a lot has happened over the last few months, I am not convinced as things currently stand that any of the young props have moved ahead of him."

However, the indications are that Woodward will not take too much convincing, given the doubts over Leonard's capacity to complete the long road to next year's World Cup in Australia.

Fourteen straight months of professional rugby is one hell of a stretch at the best of times. When you are 34, it can almost be categorised as cruelty to animals. Fully aware of the stresses and strains ahead, Leonard joined the vast majority of the 2001 Lions in taking the summer off – a decision that seemed entirely sensible. Yet his absence from the pick-up team that confronted, and defeated, Argentina in Buenos Aires allowed Flatman, perhaps the strongest of the new breed, to put himself in Woodward's line of vision by staring down a no-nonsense Puma front row and creating a match-securing try for Phil Christophers.

In retrospect, Leonard should have travelled. He was not exactly over-used by the Lions – 213 minutes of rugby, a little over two and a half matches, in six weeks is not especially tortuous even for the bus-pass brigade – and he would certainly have started the Test in Argentina had he been available, thereby claiming a 98th cap and keeping Flatman in his place. As it is, the daddy of the front row has kids crawling all over him.

Everything now depends on how Woodward sees the shape of his World Cup squad. There are two points here. The manager, a self-confessed philistine when it comes to the intricacies of bump and bore, is nevertheless fully clued in to the fact that he cannot afford to get it wrong on the scrummaging front, this being one precious area where England should lord it over the southern hemisphere when the chips are down. The Wallaby set-piece does not frighten anyone, while the All Blacks cannot, for the life of them, unearth a new Olo Brown or Craig Dowd, let alone another Ken Gray or Gary Knight. And the Boks? The fact that over-fed bullies like Ollie le Roux and Willie Meyer are still involved, years after the game passed them by, tells its own story.

Secondly, Woodward is on record as saying that the players who fly to Australia this time next year will be hardened internationals who know their way around the block. If he decides that Leonard cannot hope to make the flight to Perth, logic dictates there can be no place for him when New Zealand visit London in nine weeks' time. The anointed successor – Flatman, Woodman, Morris, whoever – will have to be introduced to the mix without delay.

Woodward would like to include six props in his 30-man World Cup party, but that would apply too great a squeeze to positions elsewhere. A four-prop option, featuring three forwards capable of playing on either side of the scrum, is too risky by half. He will almost certainly settle for five and, barring injury or plague, Vickery and White will be among them. Graham Rowntree, the Leicester loose head, is also in a strong position. In years past, Leonard's ability to switch from loose to tight and back again would have guaranteed him one of the remaining places. But Flatman can also play both sides, as can the highly rated Morris. The competition is getting hotter by the day.

According to Mark Evans, who coaches Leonard at Harlequins, there were periods towards the end of last season when the grand old man performed as well as at any time since the mid-1990s. It is no coincidence that Leonard is captain of his club this term. But he has not started an international since the non-event against Romania 10 months ago, and has no great expectations of doing so again. The bench is the best he can hope for, and he will have to play out of his socks to get that far, starting with the match against an angry Leicester at Welford Road this afternoon. Life does not get easier as you get older.