England coach Clive Woodward has dangled a World Cup carrot in front of his players as motivation for their daunting Southern Hemisphere tour.
Woodward's hugely inexperienced squad fly to Brisbane tonight, the first leg of a gruelling trip featuring Tests against Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
England's absentee list is well chronicled, with the vast majority of last summer's Lions missing either through injury or unavailability.
Northampton and Lions scrum-half Matt Dawson becomes the third England captain in 18 months, following Phil de Glanville and Lawrence Dallaglio, while 20 uncapped players dominate a 37-man squad.
Given that England, with all their big names, lost twice and drew twice against identical opposition on home soil before Christmas, then the summer expedition assumes almost frightening proportions.
But Woodward is undaunted by the task ahead, even though there is a distinct possibility his men could lose every fixture - four Test matches, plus games against New Zealand A, New Zealand Academy and New Zealand Maoris.
