Graphic: Destiny in their hands

The scale of this event is escalating fast and it was in front of a packed media hall teeming with news cameras and flashbulbs that Brian Ashton announced yesterday that he was going into Saturday’s World Cup final against South Africa armed with the very element that has got his team this far: experience.

As revealed in The Times yesterday, Mark Cueto got the call to replace the injured Josh Lewsey in a like-for-like swap on the wing. The alternative would have been to have played Dan Hipkiss at outside centre with Mathew Tait switching farther out wide, yet it is the 23 caps of the Sale Sharks wing that have settled the difference.

Cueto apart, England thus intend to travel to the Stade de France on Saturday unchanged, although there are still fitness questions to be answered by Mike Catt, who missed the squad’s floodlit training session yesterday evening.

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BACKGROUND

• Cueto ready to prove his point in Dad’s Army

• Hipkiss bid to force Ashton’s hand falls short

• Clive Woodward: Why England are my favourites

• Resurgent Gomarsall sets his sights on summit

BACKGROUND

• France exceed all expectations as hosts

• Steyn presents threat in close final

• Broccoli for breakfast is recipe for success

• The rough (sleeper’s) guide to Paris

BACKGROUND

• Robinson calls for 'one last push'

• Springboks unchanged for final

Multimedia

• Graphic: where the final could be won

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• The World Cup Podcast

• Josh Lewsey's video diary

• The Rugby World Cup blog

Related Links

• Hipkiss bid to force Ashton’s hand falls short

• Resurgent Gomarsall sets his sights on summit

• Springboks unchanged for final

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• Search for a ticket continues

• Jealous of 'boring' England

Catt tweaked a groin last Saturday in the semi-final against France and will have to prove his fitness before the weekend. However, he will do anything to push himself through one last international engagement; the Paris transport system may be going on strike today, but Catt is giving his body no such option. And, given how crucial he has become to this England team, Ashton himself would be loath to consider that option, too.

The one change that the head coach was forced to make, Ashton described as “a pretty close call. It was the fact that he [Cueto] has played a lot of international rugby in the back three. We expect a fair old bombardment and the experience of someone who has played international rugby in that position is important.”

Ashton’s thinking seems to cover two areas. He wanted the experience of Cueto ahead of Tait on the wing. But simultaneously, he explained, he did not want to break up the Catt-Tait midfield pairing that he has fielded in the past two games. As he said: “It was a pretty close call, but we decided to stick with the combination that got us into the final.”

Cueto, naturally, had begun to believe that his chance had gone. His form was inconsistent in the three pool games that he played and, when a hamstring injury made him unavailable for selection for the quarter-finals, he had to sit in the stands and watch as his team suddenly found new life in his absence.

“The logic side of your brain tells you that if your team wins in a knockout stage of the World Cup, you’re unlikely to get a chance,” he said. “The other side of your brain is saying: ‘Head down, keep working, you never know.’ And that opportunity has now come round. I’d have played in the front row this weekend.”

But out on the wing, he is certainly feeling the pressure to deliver, particularly because he is acutely aware that he has not performed at the level that his teammates reached in his absence. “I feel I’ve got a lot to prove,” he said. “The World Cup hasn’t gone how I would have liked personally. I feel a point to prove to myself, my family and friends. To get an opportunity to do that in the final is a special chance.”

The influence of experience on Saturday is certainly one of the game’s fascinating subtexts. Ashton emphasised yesterday how good England have become at fighting back to win games from behind. But similarly, he gave warning against any hope that the Springboks might be sprung with some of the mental flaws that upset first the Wallabies in the quarter-final and then France. “South Africa have got massive experience,” he said. “They’ve been together a few years, they’ve got some world-class players. They won’t freeze, they won’t freeze at all.”

Hard minds will be one thing, hard bodies are another. Jonny Wilkinson said yesterday that the physicality in the game has stepped up since his last World Cup and that “the guys that are leading that are the South African team.”

Phil Vickery, the captain, concurred. “To know what true Test-match rugby is all about,” he said, “you’ve got to play against South Africa, probably one of the most physical games you’ll ever face.”

Wilkinson explained the Springboks’ use of physicality further. “They’re doing it in a very intelligent way,” he said. “It’s about wearing teams down. It’s a mix of strategies that involves power, pace and clever thinking. South Africa have been doing that better than anyone, which is why they haven’t lost a game this tournament.”