The England coach Clive Woodward has all but abandoned his much-vaunted youth policy, choosing a 26-man squad packed with experienced internationals to begin preparations for November's World Cup qualifiers against Holland and Italy.
Having capped more than 40 players last season he has gone back to older, tried and tested performers, half of whom did not take part in last summer's disastrous tour of the southern hemisphere.
Woodward's highly conservative squad, which will form the basis of next year's World Cup side, has no place for Jon Wilkinson or Josh Lewsey, the young fly-halves he selected for the summer Tests against Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Other newcomers who emerged from the tour in credit, such as the flankers Pat Sanderson and Ben Sturnham and the centre Jos Baxendell, have also been ditched along with the more experienced Steve Ojomoh, Tim Stimpson, Nick Beal and Dave Sims.
The suspicion that the 38 players who went on the tour and lost all seven games were being used merely as cannon-fodder in the absence of the established stars has been largely borne out. Of the players who made their Test debuts only the wings Spencer Brown and Tom Beim have been retained in a squad that leans heavily on those who took part in last season's Five Nations matches.
"I have chosen the squad based on their performance since I became England coach. The squad may be added to or changed for the training session on October 25th-26th," explained Woodward, who will hold his first work-out of the season with the players at Roehampton next Monday and Tuesday.
The captaincy, currently held by Matt Dawson, will also be announced next month. The smart money is on last season's skipper Lawrence Dallaglio to get back his old job now that he has recovered from a serious shoulder injury.
Woodward's reversion to England's old guard inevitably raises more questions than it answers, especially in the long-term perspective of next year's World Cup.
Whether it is worth persevering with the 33-year-old Jeremy Guscott and his Bath team-mate Phil de Glanville, 30 tomorrow, on the basis of their solid club form is open to doubt. Presumably Will Greenwood will play a key role in the England midfield but there is also a strong case for picking either Lewsey, Baxendell or Matt Allen.
Woodward's aversion to Tim Rodber, which was evident last season, may well signal the end of the Northampton player's England career given that Richard Hill, Ben Clarke and Tony Diprose can all fill the number eight position. Clarke's recall after a splendid tour is thoroughly merited but Diprose still has a great deal to prove at the highest level, i.e. the forthcoming Tests against Australia and South Africa, if he hopes to earn a place in next year's World Cup. Certainly the athletic Sturnham, in excellent form for Bath, is unlucky to have been left out.
It remains to be seen whether Austin Healey will keep his place on the wing now that Leicester are again picking him regularly at scrum-half. Woodward airily dismisses club positions as of little consequence but he is bound to acknowledge that the number nine shirt does not favour a player aiming to become a specialist Test wing. It seems more than likely that David Rees and Brown will in any case be the first-choice wings for the game against Holland at Huddersfield on November 14th.
Woodward has invariably chosen a fully-fit Kyran Bracken at scrumhalf ahead of Dawson, and there is no reason to believe he will lose faith in the fly-half Paul Grayson, who developed a new maturity last season. Wilkinson, though, can provide cover at fly-half and centre, and the reason for him being discarded after being heavily hyped by the coach for the past year must remain a small mystery. The beneficiary of that decision is Mike Catt, whose kicking out of hand still falls a long way short of Test standard.
England (Squad for World Cup qualifiers in November) - BACKS: M Perry (Bath), T Beim (Sale), S Brown (Richmond), D Rees (Sale), A Healey (Leicester), P De Glanville (Bath), M Greenwood (Leicester), J Guscott (Bath), M Catt (Bath), P Grayson (Northampton), K Bracken (Saracens), M Dawson (Northampton). FOR- WARDS: G Rowntree (Leicester), J Leonard (Harlequins), D Garforth (Leicester), P Vickery (Gloucester), R Cockerill (Leicester), P Greening (Gloucester), M Johnson (Leicester), D Grewock (Saracens), G Archer (Newcastle), L Dallaglio (Wasps), N Back (Leicester), R Hill (Saracens), B Clarke (Richmond), A Diprose (Saracens).
