Robinson toys with throwing in young guns

There has been a fair bit of carnage at Loughborough University over the last 72 hours or so, what with the drunken excesses of freshers' week and the more sober calamities suffered by an England team preparing to take on the best side in the world, the All Blacks, in front of the biggest crowd ever to watch an international match at Twickenham. Somehow, in the midst of a physical fall-out unprecedented in the annals of red rose rugby, the head coach, Andy Robinson, managed to put 25 relatively fit players on the training field yesterday, but few supporters would have recognised them as a prospective Test side.

Olly Morgan, the Gloucester full-back, played a full part, as did his club colleague, the centre Anthony Allen. Neither man was included in the élite squad named by Robinson last month. Toby Flood, the exciting Newcastle midfielder, also caught the eye of the new coaching team. He too is an outsider. Of last season's first-choice team, only the flankers Pat Sanderson and Lewis Moody, the outside-half Charlie Hodgson, the outside centre Jamie Noon and the two wings, Mark Cueto and Josh Lewsey, could be credited with performing an active role in proceedings.

Was Robinson climbing the walls at wasting a precious get-together on a squad shorn of more than half the 56 players invited? "Actually, I feel very positive about the things we've achieved here," he replied. "We've developed an excellent mindset, we've done some quality work.

"There will always be injuries," he added, "especially in the game we have now, where post-match recovery times are greater than they once were. You have to get on with it."

He confirmed that four front-line players - the Bath lock Steve Borthwick, the Northampton hooker Steve Thompson, the Gloucester back James Simpson-Daniel and some bloke by the name of Wilkinson - were definitely out of the running for the New Zealand fixture on 5 November. He also said that Jason Robinson, interested in resuming his international career after spending a season in premature retirement, would miss the match, for no better reason than it was not the correct moment. "It has to be the right time for him, and this isn't it," the coach said.

Depending on how an uncomfortably large swathe of seasoned internationals perform over the coming weeks, at both Guinness Premiership and Heineken Cup levels, it may be that the likes of Morgan suddenly find themselves involved in the white-hot environment of Test rugby. It would be some leap of faith for Robinson to fast-track a member of the senior national academy, but he has done it before - Mathew Tait being a prime example - and, encouraged by the reappointed attack coach, Brian Ashton, appears to be in the mood to do it again.

"I have to say I've been impressed by the academy players we've seen here," he said. "They're not frightened, they've stepped up to the mark, they've spoken as they've seen fit. When we get into European rugby, the intensity will be greater and they will need to be at their sharpest.

"I have a side in mind for the New Zealand match, but it's right that we wait a couple of weeks and watch how some of these young people perform."

Talking of people speaking up, Moody felt sufficiently confident to tell it how it was in respect of last season's coaching team, who were driven out of Twickenham virtually en bloc after a third successive Six Nations championship failure. "People we had in place weren't up to doing the job, especially in attack," said the Leicester forward, pointing a very direct finger at the likes of Joe Lydon, the former rugby league player drafted into the England coaching set-up by Sir Clive Woodward.

"There were times when we felt we were going on to the field without the information required. Now we have Brian Ashton involved, we understand where he wants to take the team."

Moody's sharp comments dovetailed neatly with those of the equally outspoken Lewsey, who once again stressed the importance of playing "enjoyable rugby".

Lewsey claimed not to have seen footage of last summer's Test series in Australia, in which England were soundly beaten. "I was doing some climbing on K2, and there aren't many tellys in those parts," he said. "What is important now is that we draw a line under last season and concentrate on playing some stimulating, challenging rugby that optimises our abilities."

Robinson, who has not always seen eye to eye with the Wasps wing, was also keen to draw a line under last term, if for different reasons. "We can keep harping on about last season, but that won't bring us success," he said. "We'll achieve what we want to achieve only if we're as one. We won't win anything with a split camp." Or with an unfit one, he might have added.

31 and counting... England's walking wounded

Players missing or unable to train at start of Loughborough University session:

Stuart Abbott (Harlequins) centre knee

Iain Balshaw (Gloucester) full-back ankle

Olly Barkley (Bath) fly-half testicle

Pat Barnard (Northampton) prop knee

Steve Borthwick (Bath) second row knee

Mike Catt (London Irish) centre calf

Jon Clarke (Northampton) centre ankle

Ben Cohen (Northampton) wing virus

Martin Corry (Leicester) No8 ankle

Lawrence Dallaglio (Wasps) No8 ankle

Harry Ellis (Leicester) scrum-half hamstring

Ben Foden (Sale) scrum-half shoulder

Andy Goode (Leicester) fly-half knee

Danny Grewcock (Bath) second row knee

Richard Haughton (Saracens) wing shoulder

Charlie Hodgson (Sale) fly-half wrist

Ryan Lamb (Gloucester) fly-half ankle

Michael Lipman (Bath) flanker shoulder

David Paice (London Irish) hooker wrist

Tim Payne (Wasps) prop wrist

Andrew Sheridan (Sale) prop shoulder

Simon Shaw (Wasps) second row knee

J Simpson-Daniel (Gloucester) wing collarbone

Ben Skirving (Saracens) No8 knee

Matt Stevens (Bath) prop shoulder

Mathew Tait (Newcastle) wing knee

Steve Thompson (Northampton) hooker calf

Mike Tindall (Bath) centre calf

Mark van Gisbergen (Wasps) full-back jaw

Phil Vickery (Gloucester) prop back

Jonny Wilkinson (Newcastle) fly-half knee