Dismayed by their own shortcomings, disappointed with criticism of their performance against Wales last weekend, England will come out fighting against Italy in Rome on Sunday - and it is not only their players who say that. Italy’s coaching staff expect a positive response at the Stadio Flaminio when the RBS Six Nations Championship resumes this weekend and are bracing themselves.
Nor do England accept that Jonny Wilkinson was in any way central to their 26-19 defeat at Twickenham last Saturday. Toby Flood admitted yesterday to being “shocked” at speculation that the fly half could lose his place and while Flood is a friend and colleague of Wilkinson at Newcastle Falcons, his view will be common throughout the squad.
“It’s not so much that Jonny has to be there,” Flood, far more mature than his 22 years would suggest after making his thirteenth appearance against Wales, said. “Rather, that he’s a world-class player and his presence can only be beneficial to the team.
“If you set the bar as high as Jonny has done in the past and then find you are only 80-90 per cent there, you put yourself in the firing line. But within the squad, there’s no problem.”
Flood, sure to retain the inside centre’s place, accepts the need to put right in Rome the elements of England’s game that let them down so badly against Wales, when the game was there for the winning. “There’s a huge responsibility every time you put on an England shirt and, as players, we realise when we cross the line there’s nothing more the coaches can do for us,” he said.
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“That doesn’t scare us, it’s an exciting thing and we see it in a hugely positive light. We have to go [to Rome] with that attitude, that it’s a game where we can bring to the table what we didn’t bring in the Wales game. When a team loses, there doesn’t have to be a fall-man, and I thought Jonny was on top form. When you play in the position that he does, the mistakes you make or the positives you bring are highlighted. Look at Tiger Woods; if he doesn’t win a golf tournament, he’s a failure.”
Brian Ashton, the head coach, will confirm his starting XV today, knowing that he will not see Mike Tindall or Tom Rees again in this championship and is unlikely to have the services of David Strettle, either. Tindall, the Gloucester centre, remains under observation for a bruised liver and Rees, the London Wasps flanker, will take two months to recover from a partial tear of the medial collateral ligament in his left knee.
Harlequins have confirmed that Strettle suffered a hairline fracture to the fifth metatarsal of his left foot, the same bone he broke last August while training with the World Cup squad. The wing’s recovery period will be between four and eight weeks, although he will return to a specialist in three weeks’ time to have the damage reviewed.
With Lewis Moody recovering at Leicester from a damaged Achilles tendon, Ashton is likely to call up Michael Lipman, of Bath, at open-side flanker, but he also has Nick Easter and Tom Croft back in the mix. Easter, the Harlequins No8, has not played for five weeks but was the first choice in last October’s World Cup final; if he is considered fit, he could displace Luke Narraway, with James Haskell remaining on the blind-side flank.
England’s management will retain faith in Iain Balshaw at full back, with Lesley Vainikolo starting on the left wing. If Ashton seeks the strong physical presence at outside centre that Tindall offered, then he is more likely to call up Jamie Noon than Newcastle’s other centre, Mathew Tait, which might be solace for Noon, who was carried out of the World Cup on a stretcher after straining knee ligaments in the 36-0 defeat by South Africa in the pool stage.
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“The English will be wounded and will want to make up for it,” Carlos Orlandi, Italy’s assistant coach, said in the wake of his team’s 16-11 defeat by Ireland in Dublin. “We are expecting a strong reaction on their part. But we have a solid base on which to build and the English pack is less mobile than ours.” Another red rag to the England bull.