Woodward delivers battle cry in face of ill-timed law change

Six Nations' Championship IRB's late warning over stricter rules in the scrum angers England as French draw strength from new team discipline

Clive Woodward and Andy Robinson, the England coaches, spent Six Nations' eve praying that today's match with France would turn out to be a genuine contest. A peculiar state of affairs on the face of it: if you take "contest" to mean a struggle, a battle, a conflict – a full-on scrap, frequently conducted with extreme prejudice – Anglo-French matches have rarely been anything else. A decade ago, Brian Moore talked of "15 Eric Cantonas"; this week, Jo Maso was heard muttering something about the Hundred Years War. Sporting events do not come more highly charged.

Yet Thursday's pronouncement from the International Rugby Board, which instructed referees to use draconian measures against any player laying so much as a hand on opposition ball at the breakdown in an attempt to slow down delivery, hit a raw nerve in the England camp. "We don't want a situation where we can't get the ball unless the other lot knock it on or kick it away," Woodward said. "We want a contest for the ball on the floor, and we expect to get a contest."

Whether or not Woodward's expectations are fulfilled depends wholly on the referee, Paul Honiss of New Zealand, who has already had his ear bent by the red rose hierarchy. Honiss is a quality official, well versed in the close-quarter physicality that distinguishes the union code from rugby league. However, he will be acutely conscious of the IRB's edict, which requires him to use the sin-bin as a first option rather than as a last resort. If he feels obliged to wave a yellow card at some poor miscreant in the first five minutes, the rest of the game could be anti-climactic.

Woodward was at pains yesterday not to respond to some of the more naked examples of French wind-uppery: Imanol Harinordoquy's condemnation of "English arrogance", or the profound thoughts of Maso, the Tricolore team manager, on events in Western Europe during the Middle Ages. "I think we'll let the team do the talking for England," he smiled. "It's entirely up to the French if they want to do it differently, but I'm more than happy to keep quiet. If anyone is going to let the opposition know what they think of some of the comments that have been flying around, it will be the Twickenham crowd."

The coach did react to the charm offensive launched by his counterpart in the French camp, Bernard Laporte. Asked whether he agreed with Laporte's assertion that the countries now shared a common rugby philosophy and were more similar in more ways than at any point since the first cross-Channel match in 1906, Woodward replied: "A lot has been said about the new French discipline, but this is not a team of angels we're up against this afternoon. When they played New Zealand in the autumn, three All Blacks were sent to the sin-bin for retaliation after the referee missed the original incidents. We're anticipating a very physical encounter, as ever."

In the hurly-burly of a Six Nations match between these two, Matt Dawson's swaggering confidence and can-do attitude is generally worth its weight in gold. But Dawson will not be around this afternoon, having succumbed to the calf injury that prevented him training during the build-up, and his absence will give the French a lift, just as the drug scandal that cost Pieter de Villiers, the influential Stade Français prop, a place in the Tricolore front row tilted things England's way. England's fear must be that they will miss Dawson more than the visitors miss De Villiers.

Andy Gomarsall, who starts in Dawson's stead, faces the sternest challenge of his career. Not only must he neutralise Fabien Galthié, the French captain and his opposite number, but he must stay afloat in the whirlpool of pressure certain to be whipped up by Serge Betsen, Olivier Magne and Harinordoquy, the brilliant young Basque No 8 – perhaps the most potent back-row combination in world rugby. It is, as the Australians like to say, a big ask.

"Betsen is quite a monster," agreed Robinson, who won eight caps in the England back row and knows everything there is to know about the flanker's art. "He didn't strike me as the sharpest player I'd ever seen when I first came across him, but he has gone up a fair few levels since then. Harinordoquy is the basketball type, all mobility and ball skills; Magne has played at the top of the sport for years now and has real pedigree. It's a terrific unit, obviously. There again, so is ours."

England may regret omitting Lawrence Dallaglio this time – how strange it is to be talking of the former national captain as bench fodder – for his strength at the maul, in the tackle and on the drive would have been perfectly suited to the occasion. There are issues elsewhere, too. Can Charlie Hodgson really cut it out of position on a bare minimum of international experience? Is Dan Luger fully tuned for a match of this magnitude? Is Julian White really as fit as the coaches make out?

White has a big load on his shoulders, and it is crucial to England's fortunes that his wrenched knee copes with the weight. The French, dangerous under any circumstances, are seriously menacing if they are permitted to boss proceedings at the set-piece, so the onus is on the big West Countryman to scrummage aggressively, force the powerful Jean-Jacques Crenca into his shell and disrupt the rhythm of Les Bleus. The very best of British to him.

If England-France matches are as emotional as rugby gets, the fact that Jason Leonard will be celebrating his day of days makes this occasion more impassioned than usual from the red rose perspective. Passion cuts both ways, though, and that makes the outcome impossible to call.