csconstantine.com

{
Mike Tindall will lead England out for the first time on Friday, when he captains the side in their Six Nations opener against Wales.

The 32-year-old has taken over the captaincy during Tests but has had to wait until his 67th cap to have the honour from the start.

Tindall had been vying with Harlequins No8 Nick Easter for the job after regular skipper Lewis Moody was ruled out of the first three matches of the championship with a knee injury.

Although Martin Johnson today gave Tindall the nod for the Millennium Stadium he expects Easter to marshal the pack and inexperienced scrum-half Ben Youngs.

"Nick will do a good job leading the forwards, he's closer in to the play there and will give us direction with Ben and Toby [Flood] at 10," said the team manager. "Mike's a good captain, very experienced, but if he's not there we've got Nick, Louis Deacon, who's had a real good week as well - it's good to have him back and in good form."

Leicester lock Deacon has come in for Courtney Lawes, who has a knee injury, and is one of three changes to the side defeated 21-11 by South Africa in November.

The others are at flanker with Moody's open-side slot going to Stade Francais' James Haskell. Hendre Fourie had been earmarked for the No7 role but the Leeds man has been troubled by a calf injury in recent weeks.

Tom Wood will win his first cap after being handed the No6 shirt ahead of the experienced Joe Worsley. The 24-year-old was not in the original 33-man squad but has been promoted from the Saxons straight into the XV because he offers a genuine line-out option, something England lack with the absence of Tom Croft, who broke his shoulder against the Springboks.

Wood is in his first year with Heineken Cup quarter-finalists Northampton after three seasons at Worcester.

Johnson said: "Would Tom have got there with all the guys fit? He probably wouldn't, but he's worth a look and worth his place. The way he's playing, most importantly, with his club, is pretty impressive.

"It's not great to have guys injured but great to get Tom on the field in a big-time Test match. He's 24, so he's not in his first year of it, he's got a bit of experience.

"Tom's good in the breakdown, even though he's an aerial player, Louis is also a good all-round player, very good at the breakdown and very good organisationally in the line-out, so I think we're fine. We've got good carrying ability in that back five as well with James coming in, all those back-row guys are slightly different and it is a good combination we've got."

In a move that highlights England's tactics, the bench includes Bath back Matt Banahan, who will cover centre, wing and full-back and will be expected to bring his highly muscular play to the part at some point in Cardiff.

Dylan Hartley is at hooker which puts him in the eye of a potential storm as he has been singled out for criticism by Wales coach Warren Gatland after incidents during Northampton's recent match with Cardiff Blues. Jonny Wilkinson, injured during the autumn Tests, is recalled to the bench where he joins Simon Shaw, Steve Thompson and Worsley, giving Johnson four World Cup winners to call upon.

Talk of this autumn's World Cup has featured prominently in the build-up to the game but Johnson is refusing to look too far ahead.

He said: "Regardless of what's happening later in the year - we all know about that - this is still a big game."

Gatland also announced his match-squad today and has gone for James Hook at full-back rather than fellow Lion Lee Byrne, who features among the replacements.

Gatland has paired Jamie Roberts and Jonathan Davies together in midfield, with Scarlets wing Morgan Stoddart wearing the No14 shirt that was destined for Leigh Halfpenny until he injured his ankle in training two days ago.

As expected, Ospreys props Paul James and Craig Mitchell fill the vacancies created by injured Lions Gethin Jenkins and Adam Jones, while London Wasps' Andy Powell packs down at No8.

jQuery(document).ready(function() { var cookie = getCookie("raCookie"); jQuery("a[href^='/report-abuse.do']").each(function(idx, obj) { var soughtString = "*" + obj.id + "*"; if (cookie == null || cookie.indexOf(soughtString) == -1) { obj.style.display = "inline"; }});});


Agences de presses

Labels: captaincy, Easter, fight, London, still, Tindall

{

By Sportsmail Reporter
Last updated at 12:06 PM on 7th February 2011

Mike Tindall believes Friday night's victory over Wales could go down as one of the seminal moments in England's development towards the World Cup and beyond.

We won in Wales: England's two-try hero Chris Ashton (left) celebrates with kipper Mike Tindall

England had not won at the Millennium Stadium since 2003 and ended that barren run with a 26-19 triumph, secured with two tries from Chris Ashton and Toby Flood's faultless kicking display.

The tournament is now set up perfectly for England to challenge for the RBS 6 Nations title, with successive home fixtures against Italy, France and Scotland before a trip to Ireland on the last weekend.

But Tindall warned England all their efforts in Cardiff will go to waste if they allow their standards to slip against the Azzurri on Saturday.

'That was a great win. You hope it will be an important win in the team's development - but we mustn't get ahead of ourselves,' said Tindall, who captained England for the first time on Friday.

Dan Lydiate believes 'fingers will be pointed' this week as Wales seek a rapid response to their RBS 6 Nations defeat against England.  Wales flanker Lydiate said: 'We need to get back to winning ways. Once we do that, we will get some momentum and it will give us a boost. There were times we were sloppy against England, and we need to cut out those mistakes. If we do that, we will really be firing. We were a bit rusty, and you cannot be that way at this level. Nobody is hurting more than the players, and we are all disappointed for the fans. We will take a good long hard look at what happened. Fingers will be pointed this week, and we will sort it out for next weekend.' 

'We have to use the win as a stepping stone. Yes, there will be more expectation as we are at home but that comes from ourselves as well.

'Italy won't come to Twickenham and lie down to let us win. We have to demand performances from ourselves.

'We don't want to win ugly and scrape through. We want to win with the brand of rugby we have put out there over the last 6-8 months. If we do that we believe we will beat teams.'

In last year's championship England did scrape an ugly victory over the Italians in Rome - and it proved to be a watershed game.

England's attitude soon changed and their fortunes have been on the rise ever since, helped by the injection of youthful new blood into the team.

The likes of Flood, Ben Youngs, Ben Foden, Chris Ashton, Courtney Lawes and Tom Palmer have all become key members of the England side.

No way through: Wales' Ryan Jones is tackled by Nick Easter (left) and Mike Tindall

That new attitude means England's players will gather back at their training base today expecting a 'few rollockings' from manager Martin Johnson, despite their victory.

'You don't get better by patting yourselves on the back too much,' said Johnson.
For those players who were involved in last year's Six Nations, that is a welcome development.

'In the last Six Nations we painted over a few cracks rather than addressed the problems,' said number eight Nick Easter.

'We beat Wales convincingly at home, won in Italy and thought we were there. We didn't win a game after that.

'We realised we weren't really on the right track in certain aspects - and one of those was the honesty calls.

'It's a big shift of approach but that's what you must do. You have to be brutally honest.

'If you want to be the best in the world - and nobody's hiding from the fact that we do - we're going to have to iron out our problems.'

Agences de presses

Labels: buildup, Daily, Englandaposs, hails, Tindall, vital, Wales, World