Rugby Digest

World Cup 2007:A round-up of today's other stories

Andrew fears the worst for England

Even England's own management fear a serious battering at the World Cup, to judge by the latest addition to the squad's backroom staff. Concern that heavy-duty Pool A contests against South Africa, Samoa and Tonga will extract a huge physical toll has led to an extra masseur being drafted in, and the Twickenham hierarchy have also conceded that Brian Ashton's squad face an uphill struggle to reclaim their title.

Rob Andrew, the Rugby Football Union's director of elite rugby, can hardly write off his side's chances publicly, but yesterday he admitted England's failure to build on their 2003 success had made the defence of the Webb Ellis trophy almost impossible.

"We've had to make up for a lot of lost time," grimaced Andrew, determined to ensure England never make the same mistakes again. "In the circumstances, it's not a surprise that Brian, the coaches and the players are a little frustrated with how they've been playing in the last two weeks.

"They've had seven weeks - and only five weeks of rugby preparation - to develop not just a team, but select a final 30. There were mitigating circumstances going into last weekend's game, but, clearly, there are some creative and finishing issues they still have to work on."

Those mitigating factors included extra pre-World Cup gym sessions when, normally, the players would cram the hard physical work into a couple of days in Test-match weeks. Ashton, however, feels he has no choice given the intense schedule ahead. Had there been less club-versus-country wrangling over the past three years it could have been a very different story.

According to Francis Baron, the RFU's chief executive, a long-term agreement between Twickenham and the Premiership clubs remains close to being finalised, though the precise length of that deal is among the remaining issues to be hammered out when Premier Rugby's chief negotiator, Tom Walkinshaw, returns from Australia.

France rest Ibanez and Pelous

France will rest captain Raphael Ibanez and vice-captain Fabien Pelous for their final World Cup warm-up game, against Wales. "We made eight changes to the 22-player squad that defeated England 22-9 last Saturday in Marseille," the team manager, Jo Maso, said ahead of Sunday's game in Cardiff. "We wanted to enable all the players of our World Cup squad to show their worth and to have some playing time."

Flanker Serge Betsen will captain the side and lock Sebastien Chabal, who missed the Marseille game, is back in the squad.

Prop Pieter de Villiers should play his first game since the Six Nations after recovering from a calf injury. Hooker Dimitri Szarzewski and flanker Remy Martin are also back in the pack.

Among the backs, Lionel Beauxis will take over at outhalf from David Skrela, who is also in the squad, and Frederic Michalak is relegated to the stand.

FRANCE SQUAD: forwards: P de Villiers, N Mas, J-B Poux, S Bruno, D Szarzewski, S Chabal, J Thion, L Nallet, S Betsen, I Harinordoquy, T Dusautoir, R Martin. Backs: P Mignoni, J-B Elissalde, David Skrela, L Beauxis, Y Jauzion, D Marty, C Dominici, C Heymans, V Clerc, A Rougerie.

Gaitan resigned to missing World Cup

Argentina centre Martin Gaitan is resigned to missing the World Cup following the heart problems he suffered in Cardiff on Saturday. "I'm very fine and much calmer now. People here treated me very well. When the guys (his team-mates) visited me, they were shocked, but I feel fine. I am very close to being discharged," said Gaitan.

Pumas coach Marcelo Loffreda has not named a replacement for Gaitan as the centre is still officially in the squad and was not willing to speculate on the prognosis, preferring to be cautious, given the player's career is at stake.

Lyons gives Aussies a major boost

Wallabies backrower David Lyons has confirmed his World Cup participation. In a major boost to Australia's quest for a third trophy, Lyons has declared himself available for the opener against Japan in Lyon on September 8th after completing his first full body-contact training session since being diagnosed with deep-vein thrombosis of the calf five weeks ago."I'm very relieved," said Lyons.

Hadden defends his selection

Scotland head coach Frank Hadden defended his decision to head into the tournament with three players who will have not played a competitive match since last season.

The team for the second of those matches, against South Africa at the weekend, was named yesterday. Young back-row forward John Barclay - the only uncapped player in the squad - was again omitted from the 22, as were Toulouse-bound centre Marcus Di Rollo and injured hooker Scott Lawson.

Hadden has made only four alterations to the team that started against Ireland. Two of those will be noticeable in the back row, where Kelly Brown comes in for Allister Hogg at openside flanker and Dave Callam replaces Simon Taylor at number eight.

In the front row, Gavin Kerr returns, while Nikki Walker has been given a chance to show his pace on the wing.

SCOTLAND: 15 R Lamont (Sale); 14 N Walker (Ospreys), 13 R Dewey (Ulster), 12-A Henderson (Glasgow), 11 S Webster (Edinburgh); 10 C Paterson (Gloucester), 9 M Blair (Edinburgh); 8 D Callam (Edinburgh), 7 K Brown (Glasgow), 6 J White (Sale, capt), 5 J Hamilton (Leicester), 4 N Hines (Perpignan), 3 E Murray (Northampton), 2 R Ford (Glasgow), 1 G Kerr (Unattached).World Cup 2007