Coach acclaims Robinson call up

Almost 10 years after signing for Wigan the day before he had been due to start an apprenticeship as a bricklayer, Robinson finds himself within touching distance of becoming the first bona fide league player to play union for England.

It was a physical impossibility before professionalism began ripping the Iron Curtain between codes five years ago.

Robinson, known as Billy Whizz during his League days, arrives in the England 22 ahead of schedule.

Iain Balshaw's switch to full back plus Luger's worrying neck problem have conspired to push him up the national wing rankings behind the in-form Ben Cohen and Austin Healey.

Having Robinson waiting in the wings, manager Clive Woodward noted, will keep the incumbents under 'pressure to perform'.

When his time comes on Saturday, as it surely will on an afternoon when the resilient Mike Catt reaches the latest English half-century of caps, the new boy will be ready.

'This is a great opportunity and now I have to make sure I take it,' said Robinson. 'Hope-fully, I will get some game-time and do myself and the team proud.

'This is a great time to be coming into the England squad. I can't say how blessed I am to have this chance. The England squad is full of high-class players playing confidently and expansively. That's the way I want to play.

'It's great to be on the bench but my ultimate goal is to become a consistent member of the starting team. I still have a lot to do to get up there with the big boys.

'Just because you've been good in one code doesn't mean you will be good in another. I'm still very new to the game and it's not a case of the game adapting to me but me adapting to the game. Whatever happens, Saturday will be a day which I will treasure.'

Making room for him on the bench as a specialist wing comes at the expense of Matt Perry, rough treatment for an accomplished full back who lost his place t o Balshaw's superior pace.

Competition for English places, with the conspicuous exception of fly half, has never been more ferocious.

It matters not a jot to Robinson that Twickenham should still be anathema to all those league diehards whom history taught to view the Great Schism of 1895 as a class war - which it was - between the privileged Oxbridge set running the game and the working men who wanted compensation for lost earnings, the emotive 'broken-time.'

'I'm not here to convert league fans to union,' said Robinson, spotting the hospital pass and dodging neatly out of harm's way. 'I'm here to fulfil an ambition. If people watch the game for that reason, great. If not, that's their choice. I'm happy where I am and I'm going to enjoy it.'

The Italians, who possess a defence which might be politely described as fragile, may give England the chance to let the fast feet go to work.

With the other England wing contender David Rees temporarily out of action, Robinson will need something special, even by his standards, to split the Cohen-Healey axis.

Luger will also miss the Scotland match on March 3. 'It looks like I'm going to be out of action for another six or seven weeks,' he told his website icsport.com. 'I'm lined up for another scan in three weeks.'