England forwards pack real punch

14 April 2012

England leave for Auckland tomorrow amid fears in New Zealand that they will cause a pack of trouble in the Test series starting in Dunedin next week.

As Sir Clive Woodward waited for a last-minute fitness verdict on Bath centre Mike Tindall, the All Blacks staged their trial match after digesting warnings from some of their most famous players over the power of an English eight remoulded since the World Cup.

New Zealand coach Graham Henry has set up a brains trust consisting of 11 former All Blacks and summoned them to training camp to give the inside track on England now that half their World Cup pack has been replaced.

The one which will almost certainly line up in Dunedin on Saturday week will include four survivors from Sydney - Trevor Woodman, Steve Thompson, Richard Hill, Lawrence Dallaglio - and four changes - Julian White for Phil Vickery, Simon Shaw for Martin Johnson, Danny Grewcock for Ben Kay and Chris Jones or Joe Worsley in the back row vacancy left by Neil Back's Test retirement.

The most striking message to Henry comes from New Zealand ' s London-based former captain Sean Fitzpatrick over the front row change forced by Vickery's back operation.

'White is probably the best scrummaging prop in Europe,' Fitzpatrick says.

'Thompson is a huge man and Shaw has been playing well all season. Throw in Dallaglio and Hill and it's probably a stronger side than they put out in the Six Nations.

'They could develop into a really strong team because they have chosen all the players who deserve to be there.'

Henry has also been listening to his predecessor John Mitchell, England forwards' coach at the 1999 World Cup. He has singled out Dallaglio's leadership as a major threat to New Zealand preserving their record of never having lost a home series to England, Ireland, Scotland or Wales.

Mitchell said: 'Lawrence knows what it's like in the trenches. He's back to playing very good rugby with Wasps and, like all good footballers, he's a good cheat. He's not the line-out threat he was but he can tackle, carry the ball and make good breaks off the base of the scrum.'

England need not worry about New Zealand launching another flyer in the Joe Rokocoko and Mils Muiliana mould next week after the International Board intervened to prevent the All Blacks capping Sitiveni Sivivatu, the Fijian chosen on the Possibles wing for the trial.

They have declared the 22-year-old Chiefs' wing ineligible until December, when he qualifies on the three-year residency rule. Unlike Rokocoko and Muiliana, whose families left Fiji and Samoa respectively when both were boys, Sivivatu did not move to New Zealand until he was 18.

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England forwards pack real punch

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