England’s long-suffering supporters must hope that Brian Ashton, the new head coach, is blessed with more luck than his predecessor, Andy Robinson. Yesterday, Ashton named as his captain — up to and including the 2007 World Cup — Phil Vickery, a player of enormous reputation but perennially affected by injury, and called into the RBS Six Nations Championship training squad Jonny Wilkinson, who has not played for his country for more than three years.
Ashton has also demonstrated his willingness to go out on a distant limb. His squad of 33 has no place for Lawrence Dallaglio or Simon Shaw, or indeed Andy Goode, the fly half who finished the autumn internationals as first choice, but includes four uncapped players in Dan Ward-Smith, the Bristol No 8, Tom Rees, the highly regarded London Wasps flanker, Shane Geraghty, the London Irish fly half, who has rocketed up the rankings over the past two months, and Andy Farrell.
Robinson would have liked nothing more than to have included Farrell in an England XV, having espoused his move from Wigan Warriors to rugby union in the spring of 2005, but however many squads Farrell was named in under the former regime, he could not play because of injury. Since Robinson’s resignation, Farrell has been making significant strides at inside centre for Saracens and the former Great Britain rugby league captain could fill that spot against Scotland on February 3, the opening day of the Six Nations.
Vickery missed a year of international rugby after November 2005 and owes his elevation in part to the need to put last year’s losing sequence out of sight. “As a player and as a captain, he is the right man to take England forward,” Ashton said. “During the autumn, Martin Corry handled the captaincy situation really well in what was a difficult period and I thank him for that. He is still a vital member of the senior elite player squad and we will be looking to him for support and advice in what will be a challenging year ahead.”
Ashton’s first squad, named alongside a 32-man squad for the England Saxons programme, attempts to blend form, potential and experience into a coherent whole. It includes a recall for Jason Robinson, who retired from the international game in September 2005. His presence, alongside Corry, gives Vickery the kind of sounding-boards that Corry so seldom had during his 14 matches at the helm.
In addition, Mike Catt returns to the squad alongside Geraghty, whose skills he has done so much to nurture with London Irish, and there is also a place for Mike Tindall, who has shown signs of recapturing the form that made him a World Cup winner in 2003.
These are lieutenants of a significant calibre who can do much to point the way for younger men such as Rees, Toby Flood and Mathew Tait. Indeed, Catt was chosen for last summer’s tour to Australia specifically as a mentor for the younger men in that ill-fated squad and it is no surprise that Ashton, who places so high a premium on the ability to see space, has included him.
There is enough novelty value to suggest the turning of a new page while still calling on a great depth of experience, such as the return of Robinson. “Jason knows what it takes to be at the top of the world game in professional sport,” Ashton, who coached him at Bath in 1996, said. “Apart from being a fantastic rugby player, he has outstanding values as a person,” The proof of Ashton’s pudding will be seen in the starting XV against Scotland, but when his squad train at Twickenham from January 22 to 24, the head coach will be seeking signs of youthful confidence as well as maturity. He will also be hoping that the game’s disciplinary processes do not deprive him of Danny Grewcock and Lee Mears, the Bath forwards, who appear tomorrow before an RFU panel on charges of stamping in recent Guinness Premiership matches.
He could be without Shaun Perry for the opening weekend of the Six Nations if the Bristol scrum half does not recover from rib damage and is unlikely to have Wilkinson available, either, while long-term injuries have caused the omission of the former elite squad members, Charlie Hodgson, Andrew Sheridan and Michael Lipman.
Ashton, though, is keen to start the process, to let players know that they are in his thoughts and to watch their response in the remaining Premiership and Heineken Cup matches before the first squad meeting. That includes the likes of Richard Hill, Ben Kay, Ben Cohen and Stuart Abbott, World Cup-winners included in the Saxons squad alongside experienced internationals such as Steve Borthwick and Pat Sanderson , who, no more than six months ago, was leading England in Australia.
The point is that, although these squads are named for the representative programme in February and March, Ashton and his assistant coaches, John Wells and Mike Ford, will be thinking, too, of the tour to South Africa in May and the Churchill Cup matches to be played in England at the same time.
Squads
England senior training squad: Backs: I Balshaw (Gloucester), J Lewsey (London Wasps), J Robinson (Sale Sharks), M Cueto (Sale Sharks), P Sackey (London Wasps), M Catt (London Irish), A Farrell (Saracens), J Noon (Newcastle Falcons), M Tait (Newcastle Falcons), M Tindall (Gloucester), S Geraghty (London Irish), T Flood (Newcastle Falcons), J Wilkinson (Newcastle Falcons), H Ellis (Leicester), S Perry (Bristol), P Richards (Gloucester). Forwards: P Freshwater (Perpignan), T Payne (London Wasps), P Vickery (London Wasps), J White (Leicester), G Chuter (Leicester), L Mears (Bath), S Thompson (Northampton), A Brown (Gloucester), L Deacon (Leicester), D Grewcock (Bath), T Palmer (London Wasps), M Corry (Leicester), M Lund (Sale Sharks), L Moody (Leicester), T Rees (London Wasps), D Ward-Smith (Bristol), J Worsley (London Wasps).
England Saxons squad: Backs: N Abendanon (Bath), M Brown (Harlequins), O Morgan (Gloucester), B Cohen (Northampton), J Simpson-Daniel (Gloucester), D Strettle (Harlequins), T Varndell (Leicester), S Abbott (Harlequins), A Allen (Gloucester), O Barkley (Bath), C Walker (Bath), R Lamb (Gloucester), B Foden (Sale Sharks), N Walshe (Bath), R Wigglesworth (Sale Sharks). Forwards: A Clarke (Bristol), D Hartley (Northampton), S Turner (Sale Sharks), D Wilson (Newcastle Falcons), N Wood (Gloucester), C Brooker (Bath), A Titterrell (Sale Sharks), S Borthwick (Bath), C Jones (Sale Sharks), B Kay (Leicester), D Schofield (Sale Sharks), J Crane (Leicester), N Easter (Harlequins), J Forrester (Gloucester), J Haskell (London Wasps), R Hill (Saracens), P Sanderson (Worcester Warriors).
The new boys
Shane Geraghty
(London Irish)
Still officially a member of the Irish academy, Geraghty has made nine starts for the senior XV this season, scoring four tries and kicking 36 points. Born in Coventry, the fly half played for Ireland Under-16 but has since appeared in England’s age-grade teams. Aged 20, he says that Jonny Wilkinson is one of his rugby heroes.
Tom Rees
(London Wasps)
Only injury has held back his representative career. The flanker, 22, can play on both sides of the scrum and brings strength and an alert intelligence to his game. A product, like Matt Dawson, of RGS High Wycombe, Rees led England Under-21 but has had to fight for a place in Wasps’ back row.
A standby player for the autumn internationals, his best position is open-side.
Dan Ward-Smith
(Bristol)
A genuine contender to play at No 8 ahead of the former captain, Martin Corry, in only his second season of Premiership rugby. Named in the squad on his 29th birthday, Ward-Smith was born in New Zealand but moved to Cornwall aged 3. Spent six years scoring tries for Plymouth Albion before Richard Hill took his power and speed to Bristol.
