England v France:Brian Ashton knows the 30 players he wants to take to the World Cup but keeping them fit is another matter. Of all the weekends to withdraw with a calf injury this is an inauspicious one and a frustrated Lewis Moody can only pray his absence against France this evening does not cost him dear when the final squad is confirmed on Tuesday.
According to England's medical staff Moody merely has a minor tear which is understood to have happened during a midweek gym session. The squad are continuing to train harder than would normally be the case in a Test week but Ashton could do without further lame contenders at the very moment he is attempting to hand-pick his chosen few.
Joe Worsley will today resume in the number seven jersey he wore last week and Steve Borthwick is on the replacements' bench. But with David Strettle already sidelined and Mike Tindall set to be counted out, Moody's misfortune raises some back-row issues given that England's first-choice open-side Tom Rees has niggling fitness problems of his own.
"I'd rather Lewis had played because you don't like to see a player get injured so close to World Cup selection," admitted Ashton. "But there's no choice but to rise above it. The selection date won't go away."
As a consequence, Ashton hopes today's match will clarify what he is already thinking. The management have had three lengthy selection meetings and there would appear to be a consensus in most positions. The tightest calls are in the centre and the backrow, where, respectively, Jamie Noon and James Haskell will be looking for big games. Noon spoke with impressive candour yesterday about his intense desire to make the squad but there is a suspicion that Mike Catt, Andy Farrell, Olly Barkley, Matthew Tait and Dan Hipkiss are marginally in front as Ashton's preferred midfield options.
If the dynamic Haskell, who has just finished reading Dante's Inferno, produces anything close to his scorching best it could even be that Moody or last week's four-try number eight Nick Easter will end up with a standby ticket. Likewise a turbo-charged effort from Nick Abendanon on his first Test start at fullback will worry the other back-three candidates. If not, the prospect of Tait covering the fullback position increases. "There's always a chance that players will play themselves out or in," stressed Ashton. Either way, Danny Cipriani's chances of becoming the first teenager to represent England at a World Cup are not improving.
As Graham Rowntree and Simon Shaw can testify, missing the cut is no fun at all. Noon also knows how it feels to be discarded, having featured in the warm-up games in 2003. "Getting into the squad has been a goal of mine for a long time, everybody's got their eye on the prize," he acknowledged yesterday. "Hopefully I'll put in a solid performance and that will be good enough."
France, in turn, will want to provide stiffer resistance than in the same fixture four years ago when England won 45-14. Bernard Laporte's team are virtually at full strength and England's forwards cannot rely on the superiority they enjoyed against Wales.
ENGLAND: N Abendanon (Bath); P Sackey (Wasps), J Noon (Newcastle), M Catt (London Irish, capt), J Lewsey (Wasps); O Barkley (Bath), S Perry (Bristol); A Sheridan (Sale), M Regan (Bristol), M Stevens (Bath); S Shaw (Wasps), B Kay (Leicester); J Haskell (Wasps), J Worsley (Wasps), L Dallaglio (Wasps). Replacements: L Mears (Bath), P Vickery (Wasps), M Corry (Leicester), S Borthwick (Bath), A Gomarsall (Harlequins), J Wilkinson (Newcastle), D Cipriani (Wasps).
FRANCE: C Poitrenaud (Toulouse); V Clerc (Toulouse), D Marty (Perpignan), Y Jauzion (Toulouse), A Rougerie (Clermont Auvergne); D Skrela (Stade Français), P Mignoni (Clermont Auvergne); O Milloud (Bourgoin), R Ibanez (Wasps, capt), J-B Poux (Toulouse); F Pelous (Toulouse), J Thion (Biarritz); S Betsen (Biarritz), R Martin (Stade Français), J Bonnaire (Bourgoin). Replacements: D Szarzewski (Stade Français), N Mas (Perpignan), S Chabal (Sale Sharks), Y Nyanga (Toulouse), J-B Elissalde (Toulouse), F Michalak (Toulouse), C Heymans (Toulouse).
Referee: Alan Lewis (Ireland).
