ENGLAND’S sweet chariot, which suffered such a road accident against Ireland on Saturday, will not go long without repair. Contrary to usual practice, Sir Clive Woodward will talk about the way forward on Thursday after the splintering of his hopes for this season’s RBS Six Nations Championship.

Woodward, the England head coach, will allow as little time as possible for speculation by naming his squad to play Wales at Twickenham, on Saturday week, and will emphasise that England are by no means out of championship contention. They have, as things stand, a better points difference than France or Ireland, the other two contenders for the title, and have scored more tries, 12, from their three matches as against nine each by France and Ireland.

At the same time, there is speculation that England, who are scheduled to play Canada, South Africa and Australia in the autumn, could yet play New Zealand, whose union announced yesterday that there will be two extra games on their end-of-year tour. The All Blacks are due to play France and Wales, but the NZRFU is seeking moneyspinning matches from which the profits will be shared with their hosts.

There could be no greater money-spinner than a match against the world champions, although the RFU denied that there had been any official approach. New Zealand have been agitating for revenue-sharing games played offshore and have agreed a fixture against a Pacific Islands XV on July 10, although that stems from pressure to help the islanders, who are in dire financial straits.

Arguably the most significant result of last weekend was not that at Twickenham but the one achieved in the under-19 international between England and Ireland at the Broadstreet club in Coventry. Ireland’s record at this level has been consistently better than England’s. Indeed, six years ago they won what was then the FIRA tournament — in effect the junior world cup — by beating the host nation, France, 18-0.

There is concern in Ireland that the spring of young talent is not as productive as it once was. Yet for England to win 54-13 at this level suggests a swinging of the pendulum and if they can reproduce that kind of result, initially against Wales in Morley on Friday night but then in the IRB under-19 world tournament in Durban this month, Woodward will be far happier about his long-term expectations for the seniors.

England have never come higher than fifth in the junior world championship, but Tosh Askew, their coach, believes this group to be the most talented he has seen in a five-year association. “A lot of these guys are getting better conditioning in their club academies and we now have the physicality to deal with the aggression that the Celts always tended to bring to these games,” Askew said.

England play Georgia, Australia and Ireland in their pool matches in South Africa, where the likes of Tom Ryder, the Leicester lock who captains the under-19s, James Haskell, of London Wasps, and Topsy Ojo, of London Irish, who have already appeared for their club senior XVs, can lay down markers for the future.

After featuring in only two comeback games for Leicester since breaking his leg last September, Geordan Murphy has been included in a 31-strong Ireland training squad for their next RBS Six Nations Championship international against Italy at Lansdowne Road on Saturday week.