Farrell Not Finished After All, Says Red-faced Ford

At some stage England will enjoy a smooth build-up to a crucial Test but, for now, there remains a trace of Mr Bean about their daily misadventures. Yesterday morning the team bus failed to start because of a flat battery and the defence coach, Mike Ford, performed an inelegant public pirouette about Andy Farrell with a statement resembling something dictated to a Pravda copytaker in the old Soviet era.

None of this should affect England's chances of beating Samoa in Nantes on Saturday but it is indicative of a team who have taken to this World Cup like a duck to concrete. The Ford-Farrell saga began last Sunday when Ford suggested that the former Wigan captain was running out of time to make an impact in union. In what amounted to a ham-fisted retraction yesterday, a lengthy missive was issued under Ford's name claiming Farrell had "at least another two years at the top level ".

A hilariously clumsy attempt at damage limitation was compounded when Farrell, a bench replacement this weekend, was stood down from his scheduled media duties at short notice. It is hard not to feel sorry for Farrell in all this, trapped in circumstances about which he can do little. He and the likable Ford are good friends and even used to be next-door neighbors, and although the former Great Britain rugby league captain may ultimately prove a square rivet in a round hole so far as this England team is concerned he was far from the only player to endure a tough 80 minutes against South Africa. No one can hope to create much at No12 without at least one teammate running intelligent lines off him.

All this puts additional onus on England to change their mind-set as they transfer today from the outskirts of Paris to the seaside resort of La Baule on the Atlantic coast. To stay in this World Cup they have to mount some sort of threat with ball in hand, their attacking game having assumed all the characteristics of the Scarlet Pimpernel. It has allegedly been spotted in training, hidden from prying eyes by the geometrically trimmed bushes and hedges of Versailles, but it is high time a more dynamic England side revealed itself on the pitch.

That is certainly the view of Mathew Tait and Paul Sackey, the two quickest men in the starting line-up. Blunt-edged teams have got precisely nowhere in this World Cup and England have huffed and puffed through two warm-up games against France and last week's Springbok debacle without scoring a single try. They even managed to miss out on a four-try bonus point against the United States, and Tait is desperate to make amends.

"I have been frustrated at not having had an opportunity to do what I think I can do . . . my game is all about running and creating chances for myself and other people," said the Newcastle center, whose development into a fully formed Test regular is taking longer than he would like. At times he has found himself stationed at full-back and on the wing but as a result of injury to his club-mate Jamie Noon he is finally back in his favoured position of No13 and is in the mood to silence those who believe he is too slight to thrive at international level. "I'm under no illusions about how hard it is going to be, physically. You have to relish the physical side because it's the nature of the beast. But I've matured over the last couple of years and feel able to handle myself better."

Sackey, similarly, craves the opportunity to demonstrate the try-scoring instincts he shows for Wasps. "I was very disappointed and frustrated last Friday because my job is to score tries. I can't do that unless I get the ball in my hands. We've had a problem getting the right balance between hitting the ball up in the forwards and giving it out to the backs. "But we sat down at the beginning of the week, clarified a lot of issues and ironed out a lot of the creases. Everyone knows their roles and the last two sessions have been really good. I think we've really come together. We've been really upbeat and if we can bring that positivity to the game we'll come away with the right result."