DANNY HIPKISS should be one surging Sunday afternoon’s Heineken Cup action from England’s outside-centre slot. He has not played that much rugby this season but he has achieved a degree of cutting edge beyond his contemporaries.

That is no small achievement because his team, Leicester, are regularly forced to play with slow ball and that is as good as dead ball to a backline. That is partly due to some feeble refereeing at the breakdown in favour of those who would kill rather than create attacks and partly because the team has decided to grind out wins instead of open up the game.

Given a chance to play on the front foot, the thrusting Tiger could emerge from the melee of would-be contenders who have been tested and found wanting and claim the No 13 shirt as his own. Today’s game is a perfect opportunity, the England management seeing him opposite an Ospreys midfield with some of the bigger names in the British game.

It is some time since the English centres could be considered among the leading lights of European rugby. The days of Will Greenwood and Mike Catt, weaving space into which Mike Tindall would explode, are almost forgotten. Then again, so too is the sort of front-foot ball on which the midfield thrived. Jonny Wilkinson encroached on to the gain line, Greenwood nosed his way over it and Tindall tore into space rather than tacklers. The issue of centres is a matter of style as well as personnel. The style disappeared and so too the mix of muscle and the subtle as Andy Robinson, Brian Ashton and — to date — Martin Johnson failed to find the right formula. Riki Flutey is the nearest England have come to solving the problem but with his injury it is a case of starting all over.

Hipkiss will only thrive if the possession is quick and the man inside him possesses the necessary balance of skills. That was the secret of the success of the lanky off-loader, Greenwood, and the storming charger, Tindall. The best-balanced foil to Hipkiss is Northampton’s Shane Geraghty. His is the name on most lips as the next inside centre. Word is that the chatter is as intense within management. That is encouraging because he has the ability to create on the gain line and work pin- balling centres like Hipkiss into space. But to play the sinuous and subtle skills of the Saint is a gamble.

If England do not pursue quick ball he could emerge as a weakness instead of an inherent strength. He could become a second Henry Paul. The league convert offered all his most exciting union moments deep behind the gain line but was asked by Robinson to create while standing on the gain line. He was not suited to the challenge and he crashed and burned.

Geraghty’s game is the opposite of Paul’s. He flourishes the nearer he gets to the opposition. He is at his very best operating in tight corners. He has the acceleration and speed of hand to create mayhem at No 12 and open the field wider out.

His influence will dwindle the further he plays from the defence. He can be a magician on the gain line but used as an alternative kicker and deep-lying passer, most of his distribution qualities are wasted. Johnson might be wary about his defence but those of us with any sort of memory will recall that Phil Larder raised defensive questions about both Greenwood and Catt. It is a concern that the Saint is not playing inside centre for his club because the switch from No 10 to No 12 is not as simple as many assume but to those praying for a more ambitious England, then Geraghty and Hipkiss are the right fit. If, however, secure rather than speedy possession is the main aim and England continue to churn endlessly adagio-speed ball then the best fit would be the tenacious Bradley Barritt of Saracens and Tindall, the tireless workhorse with an accurate chasing game.

But Barritt has many limitations. He is doing a darned good job at Saracens but until now Brendan Venter has not asked him to do much other than smash attacking waves and carry the ball into the opposing midfield. He appears more comfortable running into opponents than space. Such an attitude wins friends among the less thoughtful and unreconstructed forwards but it does little to find fresh air beyond the suffocating world of top-class defences.

Tindall, like the Saracen, will run at and — given a chink — through a brick wall but international defences are well-constructed entities. Sheer strength relies on finding an eventual weakness in those opposite and Tindall’s weak shoulder is a thing of the past. But so, too, are the Gloucester man’s finest days. Surely the time has come for England to cast their eyes over the horizon unless nobody else has the capacity to play near the standards set. Tindall is reliable but not that much more. Hipkiss has potential against the other man’s experience. He also has better footwork and a slashing change of angle that, on the gain line alongside Geraghty, could carve holes in opposition coming late. I would love to see the Northampton man play a few games at No 12 but club rugby is no feeding ground for internationals.

It’s up to England to have some courage and take the risk.