Ready to answer questions

Rugby: Andy Robinson tells Gerry Thornley why he's optimistic as he faces into his first Six Nations in charge of England

Part of the heightened allure of this season's Six Nations is that England are such an unproven, if exciting, work in progress. Pitched into the cauldron of the Millennium Stadium this Saturday, with games at home to France and away to Ireland to quickly follow, whether they like it or not they are going to have to hit the ground running.

Despite all the recent retirements and injuries to have hit the English squad, and after his six-year stint as the number two, Andy Robinson appears to be revelling in the spotlight of being his country's coach. Rubbing his hands together and smiling repeatedly, his optimistic high spirits contradicts his somewhat dour reputation.

"I've tremendous belief in England and what we're trying to do," he says with verve, "I shouldn't be coaching England if I didn't think that.

"We've got some challenges ahead, we've got some questions that we've got to answer about ourselves. Particularly with the injuries we've had what is now the important part for us is the leadership, and seeing key leaders come through to develop as leaders themselves. That's an area we're looking to have in all our games: strong leadership."

Beginning in Cardiff this Saturday. "They are an outstanding team," Robinson ventures of his opponents, "in tremendous form. Obviously there's question marks over whether they can go that next step and they'll be looking at themselves to see what they need to do to turn outstanding performances into great victories.

"We know what they'll be about. We've got tremendous respect for the way they play the game. Everybody is looking forward to the great atmosphere in Cardiff and for us being inspired by the singing beforehand and being able to keep our composure in the way we play."

Necessity being the mother of invention, Robinson has made a virtue out of the enforced turnover in playing personnel but even he couldn't have imagined he would end up picking such a relatively callow side, featuring an 18-year-old debutant (Mathew Tait) in a restructured midfield and a flanker making his first championship start.

All in all, the English coach has changed one third of his last starting line-up, as well as a couple of positional switches.

"If we're honest, in the sport, the injuries and player burnout have been brewing for a fair bit of time. I think that in the long-term, away from the focus of the Six Nations, it is something that really has to be looked at by the RFU and the clubs. We need to get together and sort out our action plan."

Robinson, who has adopted a more conciliatory tone towards the Premiership clubs than his predecessor Clive Woodward did, has also sensibly called for input from the English Professional Players Association in developing a more structured season that will enable their members to play at their best level for both club and country.

"But the focus for me has to be on the short-term goal of beating Wales," he added, kick-starting a much more hazardous opening programme. By contrast, last season England started, like Ireland this year, with treks to Italy and Scotland.

"As a group we look forward to these challenges. We want to play against the best teams and that's what the Six Nations does. I think it's the best Six Nations ever, not because of the Lions tour coming up but because of the form of the teams and the questions that are hanging over every team.

"There's question marks hanging over France after their autumn results, there's question marks over Ireland in their ability to go the next step, question marks over England about how are we going to perform, what I've said about Wales and I think Italy and Scotland will be two teams that will claim at least two scalps this year.

"So every game has that little bit of edge about it and if you take your eye off the opponents you're playing against you're going to get caught out. And our focus is going to be on beating Wales."

This Anglo-Welsh rendezvous in Cardiff on Saturday evening (5.30) is undoubtedly the stand-out game of the opening weekend. Robinson maintains that England's style of play will be dictated by the players available to them, but he wants his side to develop two or three ways of playing in any one game, and not be predictable. His opening selection - with a non-kicking inside centre of Jamie Noon outside Charlie Hodgson, and Tait linking up with a potent outside three of Josh Lewsey, Mark Cueto and Jason Robinson - suggests that both sides will be playing a fairly all-embracing game. Central to that will be ball retention.

"If we can keep hold of the ball and maintain our shape in attack then I think we're going to be a dangerous side to play against," he said before again justifying his much questioned withdrawal of Henry Paul after 24 minutes in the defeat to Australia, albeit without mentioning the Gloucester centre by name.

"If we turn over a lot of ball, as we did in the first 20 minutes against Australia, then, like all sides, we're going to be under an amount of pressure."

And they are going to be. Starting this Saturday.

"We've got to get some momentum going forward, and I think for both teams it's set up for a huge game. Both teams are going to get a lot out of it if they win the game moving forward to the next game, but winning is the vital thing for us."