England v Wales: It has been a long while since Welsh fans climbed aboard their Twickenham trains more in expectation than hope but a grim weather forecast and the failure of the outhalf Paul Grayson to pass a fitness test on his strained left calf yesterday have ensured England will take less for granted than usual this afternoon.
If ever there was a Six Nations weekend when the likely conditions cry out for a calm, experienced hand at number 10 it is this one. Instead England have no choice but to bank on the largely untried 22-year-old Olly Barkley as Jonny Wilkinson's latest deputy, a selection akin to putting a fresh-faced deckhand in charge of a deep-sea trawler with a Force Nine brewing.
Despite a good season for Bath, which has prompted lucrative offers from several other Premiership clubs, the Cornish-reared Barkley has never started a Test and, amid reports that his allocation of Ireland match tickets ended up on the black market, was not even among Sir Clive Woodward's 22-man squad last Monday.
When Grayson pulled up lame and joined Wilkinson and Charlie Hodgson on the sidelines, however, the need for a specialist goalkicker enabled Barkley to leapfrog his club-mate Mike Catt and, by supreme irony, multiply his family's ticket needs.
His father John is a London-based landscape gardener while his mother Jude runs a childrens' nursery in Cornwall but Woodward has already put the young man's mind at rest. "He's got his tickets," sighed the coach, rather more concerned with ensuring the whole team respond positively to their Irish wake-up call a fortnight ago.
Just in case there was any lingering doubt, the management even issued another eve-of-game challenge to England's forwards to rediscover the bristling qualities which saw them labelled "white orcs on steroids" in Wellington last summer. "The England pack have to get back the attitude they had in New Zealand last year where we were a scary pack of forwards," insisted Woodward yesterday, making clear that his side's preparations have been more intense than the build-up to the Ireland game.
"The weather forecast is pretty appalling but that's fine. We're happy to play in any conditions."
At least England, unlike France, rarely shrink in the wet. But they no longer have Martin Johnson and Neil Back's muscular expertise, nor Wilkinson to edge them home with the boot.
The Welsh back three will also recall England's poor tactical kicking in the World Cup quarter-final in Brisbane, when the eventual champions conceded three tries to one. This time, if they are to go one step further, Wales will have to display methodical as well as maverick qualities. Unless their scrum, in particular, holds firmer than it did against France it could get seriously ugly.
Guardian Service
ENGLAND: J Robinson; J Lewsey, W Greenwood, M Tindall, B Cohen; O Barkley, M Dawson; T Woodman, S Thompson, P Vickery, D Grewcock, B Kay, C Jones, R Hill, L Dallaglio (capt). Replacements: M Regan, J White, S Borthwick, J Worsley, A Gomarsall, M Catt, J Simpson-Daniel.
WALES: G Thomas; R Williams, M Taylor, I Harris, S Williams; S Jones, G Cooper; Duncan Jones, R McBryde, G Jenkins, B Cockbain, M Owen, J Thomas, C Charvis (capt), Dafydd Jones. Replacements: M Davies, B Evans, G Llewellyn, M Williams, D Peel, C Sweeney, T Shanklin.
Referee: A Cole (Aus).
