Rugby Union: England prepare to flex muscle

IT SEEMS almost disrespectful to suggest that an England pack boasting the better part of 250 caps needs to prove itself in the humdinging chaos of Lansdowne Road this afternoon, but the powder-puff performance of the red rose forwards against Scotland a fortnight ago has transformed today's little set-to with the Bash Street tearaways of Ireland into a highly significant rite of passage. A cohesive, authoritative job of work at the sharp end will put the current eight safely on course for the World Cup.

Another outbreak of horizontal pacifism will raise some very awkward questions indeed.

Clive Woodward, the visitors' coach, has spent much of this past week talking up his bench replacements, in particular Danny Grewcock and Martin Corry, and the message has been as clear as a summer's dawn in Galway: unless the incumbents stand up to be counted against Paddy Johns' furious emerald enforcers in the most eagerly-awaited Ireland-England match for years, Woodward will not hesitate to stand them down. "There were a number of experienced players who failed to do the job against Scotland, at least to the standards we've set ourselves as a squad," Woodward said yesterday.

"You can't have that in international rugby. End of story."

Fortunately for Woodward's Grand Slam ambitions, his key personnel have literally been here before. Back in 1997, when the Irish hard men strongly fancied their chances of giving England a serious hurry-up in front of the boisterous Dublin support, they found Jason Leonard, Tim Rodber and an inspired Richard Hill in ruthless mood. Leonard, in particular, had been stung by impertinent suggestions of his declining powers and, thus motivated, proved impossible to subdue.

Two years on, the dear old stick picks and chooses his big games; indeed, with 68 caps safely stowed in his Harlequins kitbag he is perfectly entitled to plot his own route across the increasingly hazardous landscape of the international game. The question today is whether he has the physical wherewithal, not to mention the desire, to go eyeball to eyeball with an implacable Irish front row and reassert his old superiority. On days like this it begins and ends up front.

Ireland's chances of a first victory over England since 1994 lay in two distinct areas. The first is in the front row, where the hostile Peter Clohessy and the technically proficient Paul Wallace provide such an effective launch pad for Keith Wood, whose rampant individualism remains one of modern-day rugby's compelling attractions. The second is in the stands and terraces of the oldest, most rickety and most wonderfully charming international venue of them all. The Dublin audience is always 16th player. On a good day, it is a 17th and 18th too.

"I'm not sure the Lansdowne Road factor is quite what it was," confessed Donald Lenihan, the Irish team manager, whose own long and honoured career in the emerald engine-room was marked by more than one Dublin triumph over the mainlanders. "To be honest with you, when you play as we did two years ago and lose by 40 points, you don't deserve the support of the crowd. So we have to earn that support and the way to do that is to give them something to shout about in the first 10 minutes or so. They'd get right behind us then, for sure."

In Woodward's opinion, professionalism has diluted the home venue effect.

"It's easier to play at home, obviously, but in an era of full-time players and coaches, there is no excuse for not coping with the particular atmosphere generated in Edinburgh, Cardiff, Paris or Auckland. Or here in Dublin, of course. It was a difficult place to play in my day and it's not easy now, but I would expect us to do the right things in the right places of the field wherever we happen to be."

One person who was in Dublin yesterday - in the England team hotel in Killiney - was Tony Underwood, the Newcastle wing. Woodward insisted there was nothing to be read into his late arrival, however. "Tony is just about the only senior England player we haven't picked for either the international side or the A team and I want to keep him involved," he explained. "Of course, he'd be handy cover in the event of an outbreak of 'flu." And had there been an outbreak of 'flu? "No," insisted the coach.

"Everyone's fit and firing." Mmmm.

If the England forwards fail to fire at 4pm today, the Irish will have them for afternoon tea. But the stakes are sufficiently high to bring the red rose blood to boiling point and given their recent record - 15 tries in their last six visits to Dublin - the odds favour another step towards a record fifth successive Triple Crown. Just.

IRELAND v ENGLAND

at Lansdowne Road, Dublin

C O'Shea (London Irish) 15 M Perry (Bath)

J Bishop (London Irish) 14 D Rees (Sale)

K Maggs (Bath) 13 J Wilkinson (Newcastle)

R Henderson (Wasps) 12 J Guscott (Bath)

G Dempsey (Terenure) 11 D Luger (Harlequins)

D Humphreys (Dungannon) 10 P Grayson (Northampton)

C McGuinness (St Mary's) 9 K Bracken (Saracens)

P Clohessy (Young Munster) 1 J Leonard (Harlequins) K Wood (Harlequins) 2 R Cockerill (Leicester)

P Wallace (Saracens) 3 D Garforth (Leicester)

P Johns (Saracens, capt) 4 M Johnson (Leicester)

J Davidson (Castres) 5 T Rodber (Northampton)

D O'Cuinneagain (Sale) 6 R Hill (Saracens)

A Ward (Ballynahinch) 7 N Back (Leicester)

V Costello (St Mary's) 8 L Dallaglio (Wasps, capt)

Referee: P O'Brien (New Zealand) Kick-off: 4.0 (BBC1)

Replacements: 16 K Keane (Garryowen); 17 E Elwood (Galwegians); 18 C Scally (University College Dublin); 19 E Miller (Terenure College); 20 M Galwey (Shannon); 21 J Fitzpatrick (Dungannon); 22 R Nesdale (Newcastle).

Replacements: 16 N Beal (Northampton); 17 M Catt (Bath); 18 M Dawson (Northampton); 19 M Corry (Leicester); 20 D Grewcock (Saracens); 21 V Ubogu (Bath); 22 N McCarthy (Gloucester).