RUGBY:MARTIN JOHNSON has been in managerial charge of England for 32 Tests, plenty long enough to be wary of taking unnecessary risks. As Clive Woodward, something of an expert in the field, observed at the weekend: "Martin knows he will be judged on the World Cup. He will live or die by the choices he makes now."
England, perhaps as a consequence, will fly to New Zealand next week with a 30-man squad picked more for its durability under enemy fire than its dazzling ball-playing instincts.
A crafty double-bluff? We will find out next month but the tone of the manager’s utterances and selections scarcely suggest so. Johnson will go to his grave reminding people that Test rugby is a brutally physical business, not an abstract creative concept. “You would rather win ugly than lose pretty every day of the week. When you get into World Cup games it is all about winning. Sometimes people lose sight of that.”
His deliberate choice of 17 forwards and only 13 backs (including three scrumhalves) simply underlined the feeling that if England are to win this World Cup it will make distinctly gritty viewing.
Johnson, of course, speaks with some authority as the only English captain to have lifted a World Cup. It remains his unshakeable view that the unexpected does not win World Cups. Opponents may see England’s big men coming from a mile off but they still have to stop them and get past them.
The upshot, as expected, is a list which includes five props, four specialist locks and little in the way of subtlety. There is not even a specialist ball-sniffing openside: in an ideal world the Wasps number seven Tom Rees would have fitted the bill but, heartbreakingly, he has just been ruled out for another six to nine months with a ruptured cruciate ligament. In his absence, the valiant Lewis Moody, will have to soldier on alone.
With Riki Flutey also left behind to accommodate his Wasps club-mate Joe Simpson following Danny Care’s unfortunate toe injury, England’s midfield also largely comprises big men.
Guardian Service
BACKS: D Armitage (London Irish), C Ashton (Northampton Saints), M Banahan (Bath Rugby), M Cueto (Sale Sharks), T Flood (Leicester), B Foden (Northampton Saints), S Hape (London Irish), J Simpson (London Wasps), M Tindall (Gloucester Rugby), M Tuilagi (Leicester), R Wigglesworth (Saracens), J Wilkinson (Toulon) B Youngs (Leicester). FORWARDS: D Cole (Leicester Tigers), A Corbisiero (London Irish), T Croft (Leicester), L Deacon (Leicester), N Easter (Harlequins), D Hartley (Northampton Saints), J Haskell (Ricoh Black Rams), C Lawes (Northampton Saints), L Mears (Bath Rugby), L Moody (Bath Rugby), T Palmer (Stade Francais), S Shaw (Unattached), A Sheridan (Sale Sharks), M Stevens (Saracens), S Thompson (London Wasps), D Wilson (Bath Rugby), T Wood (Northampton Saints).
