Rugby Union: Farrell Back As England Seek Edge

There is no danger of England lacking motivation against the Springboks this Saturday. The line-up named by Brian Ashton yesterday may not be the strongest in the world but the head coach has taken umbrage at a local paper's reference to his team as a bunch of "part-timers, plumbers and decorators". If the tourists were not already keen to prove their worth, they certainly are now.

The mood in training was so feisty that even Ashton himself finished with a bloodied nose after unwisely volunteering to hold a tackle bag for his hooker Mark Regan. One of the three new caps, Sale's Dean Schofield, also made clear he will not alter his no-nonsense club approach and is promising to "get stuck in" from the outset. England, it seems, will not go down in Bloemfontein without a fight.

A physical undercurrent is hardly a novelty in fixtures between these two nations, with Jannnes Labuschagne's sending-off at Twickenham in 2002 merely one lurid snapshot among a whole pile of recent X-rated footage. Ashton, though, insists his combination has been selected less with skulduggery in mind than identifying which of his supposed fringe players possess mental steel in adversity.

Among those thrown in at the deep end are the 21-year-old Harlequins full-back Mike Brown and the Gloucester loose-head Nick Wood, both previously uncapped, and Sale's Stuart Turner starts at this level for the first time. Andy Farrell has also been handed another chance to show he can boss a Test union backline and further olive branches have been extended to Regan, the Gloucester pair Alex Brown and Andy Hazell and the Sale flanker Chris Jones.

Ashton intends to make further changes for the second Test in Pretoria on Saturday week before finalizing his preliminary World Cup squad. "From a selfish point of view I need to be really clear by the time we fly back to England whether certain individuals can handle playing at international level in a hostile environment and whether certain groups of players can manage a game under pressure," he confirmed. The 9-10-12 axis of Peter Richards, Jonny Wilkinson and Farrell is a particular area of interest, with Farrell still to convince everyone he has the necessary attributes to make a success of the demanding No12 role.

The former Great Britain rugby league captain came under heavy fire after England's defeat by Ireland in Dublin in February but his strong tackling will be invaluable against a powerful-looking Springbok side which is due to be finalized today. "If you want to equate what happened at Croke Park to what's going to happen in Bloemfontein you can," sighed Ashton, having preferred Farrell to the more youthful Toby Flood. "A guy who played rugby league for Great Britain at 18 and captained them at 21 will take no notice whatsoever of any criticism. It's part of the natural law of things in England. Some areas of rugby union were going to criticize him irrespective of how he performed."

Nevertheless it was hardly the perfect day for Wilkinson to sit out training with mild gastroenteritis, an uncanny flashback to England's last tour here in 2000 when food poisoning ruled him out of the first Test in Pretoria less than an hour before kick-off. Pat Sanderson and two of the touring team's backroom staff have also been laid low but it is believed to be merely a 24-hour bug and Wilkinson is confident of making his first England appearance in the southern hemisphere since winning the 2003 World Cup.

It was also distinctly cold across South Africa yesterday, with snow in places, but nothing could dampen the enthusiasm of the assorted new caps, particularly the Manchester-born Schofield who only took up rugby at 18 after leaving school to work on building sites. A decade on, the 6ft 6in lock finds himself cast in the 'Enforcer' role previously occupied by the likes of Martin Johnson and Danny Grewcock. He cheerfully accepts that his abrasive style may "cause a reaction" from one or two Springbok forwards. "We know what we're up against, we've just got to get stuck into them."

England line-up


15 M Brown (Harlequins)

14 Strettle (Harlequins)

13 Tait (Newcastle)

12 Farrell (Saracens)

11 Robinson, capt (Sale)

10 Wilkinson (Newcastle)

9 Richards (Gloucester)

1 Wood (Gloucester)

2 Regan (Bristol)

3 Turner (Sale)

4 Schofield (Sale)

5 A Brown (Gloucester)

6 Jones (Sale)

7 Hazell (Gloucester)

8 Easter (Harlequins)

Replacements: Cairns (Saracens), Crompton (Bristol), Winters (Bristol), Sanderson (Worcester), Gomarsall (Harlequins), Flood (Newcastle), Balshaw (Gloucester)