England Look Back in Anger As the Rocky Road Leads to Rome

The untimely loss of Andrew Sheridan from the England team to play Italy this weekend was just one of several issues which failed to brighten Brian Ashton's mood in Bath yesterday. The head coach has grown wearily accustomed to costly injuries at inconvenient moments but, as he stressed repeatedly, there will be some very "angry men" flying to Rome tomorrow in the wake of last weekend's defeat to Wales.

England's wounded pride, in fact, generated rather more debate than the latest medical bulletin which has prompted five changes, four of them enforced, to Ashton's starting line-up for Rome. The infected heel which has laid the giant Sheridan low, reviving memories of the swollen insect bite which forced the Sale prop to miss the pre-World Cup Test against France, is nothing compared with England's festering sense of frustration.

Having reviewed the tape of England's 26-19 demise, Ashton has firmly concluded his side's woes were the consequence of "six minutes of madness" during which Wales scored 17 points. "It will not happen again," said Ashton coldly. "There was incredible anger about what happened last Saturday. There's been a lot more focus in training than there was last week. There's a real determination to ensure that, when we get on to the field on Sunday, we see the real England for the whole game."

Ashton, furthermore, has clearly been riled by suggestions the team suffered a system failure comparable to their 36-0 thrashing by South Africa in the pool stages of the World Cup, pointing out that there was precious little wrong with the first-half effort.

"Why would they play like that for 60 minutes if they didn't know what was going on? That was some of the best rugby England has played for quite some time. Was that completely by accident?" He is also adamant Italy can expect a backlash. "This team is going out to play some rugby on Sunday. We don't want to get into the game we had against Italy last season when we ended up just playing in a 15-meter channel. It would be very easy to get into a very tight mentality and say: 'We can't afford to lose, we'd better not do this or that.' We're going to go out very positively. What we're not prepared to do is go backwards mentally just to eke out a win."

There is also the small matter of Jonny Wilkinson's role which continues to arouse plenty of debate. Ashton described him the "the best fly-half to start this weekend" and was more than happy to defend his selection. "I suspect he made a lot fewer mistakes [against Wales] than players whose names haven't been mentioned. The focus will be on that one pass he made but game management is a collective responsibility. The days of the No10 taking charge of the game on his own are long gone. It's the team's responsibility collectively to make sure it doesn't happen again."

As for Wilkinson himself he has, typically, been searching deep inside for the solution to England's abrupt malfunction. "I don't read the newspapers at all. I don't really know, or need to know, what is being said or what the outside world is thinking. There's a good deal of frustration mixed with enormous disappointment but I'm not one for getting angry. My perception on being a perfectionist has changed because it was doing a great deal more damage to my life than it was doing good. Maybe I still lose a bit of sleep but I don't sit there cringing at myself trying to shake off the memory.

"The only thing that makes me anxious is watching the video and seeing something I could have done better, something that contradicts the feeling I had when I was out there. I'm not anxious about selection because I'm doing the best I can. We're not playing a political game. I don't want to be here if I'm not the right person."

If Ashton could give up one thing for Lent, though, it would not be discussing Wilkinson or the mercurial Iain Balshaw. It is injuries to key individuals in the middle of major tournaments which continues to cause him most angst. Wasps' Tim Payne is an underrated replacement at loose-head but the stricken Sheridan - "In an ideal world he's a player you'd want in your team every week" - is hardly the man to lose before facing a side with Italy's scrummaging depth.

At least Bath's Michael Lipman is a more than handy reinforcement in the accident-prone role of open-side flanker and the returning Nick Easter supplies more experience than the slightly unfortunate Luke Narraway. Wilkinson's Newcastle club-mate Jamie Noon is also delighted to be back in the midfield after being invalided out of the World Cup. Ashton, however, would prefer the injury jinx to recede soon. "I hope there's not someone up there who doesn't like me," mused the 61-year-old. "That would be a bit of a worry at my time of life."

Stadio Flaminio teams

Italy

15 David Bortolussi14 Kaine Robertson13 Gonzalo Canale12 Mirco Bergamasco11 Ezio Galon10 Andrea Masi9 Pietro Travagli1 Andrea Lo Cicero2 Leonardo Ghiraldini3 Martin Cast'giovanni4 Santiago Dellape5 Carlo Del Fava6 Josh Sole7 Mauro Bergamasco8 Sergio Parisse, capt

Replacements
Carlo Festuccia, Salvatore Perugini, Carlos Nieto, Alessandro Zanni, Simon Picone, Andrea Marcato, Alberto Sgarbi

England

15 Iain Balshaw14 Paul Sackey13 Jamie Noon12 Toby Flood11 Lesley Vainikolo10 Jonny Wilkinson9 Andy Gomarsall1 Tom Payne2 Mark Regan3 Phil Vickery, capt,4 Simon Shaw5 Steve Borthwick6 James Haskell7 Michael Lipman8 Nick Easter

Replacements
Lee Mears, Matt Stevens, Ben Kay, Luke Narraway, Richard Wigglesworth, Danny Cipriani, Mathew Tait

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