Ashton reveals his hand
Brian Ashton has made seven changes – one positional – to his England team from the one humiliated by South Africa last weekend, handing the captaincy to Jonny Wilkinson
The Newcastle fly-half takes over from Jason Robinson, who has not recovered from a knee injury sustained during the record 58-10 defeat in Bloemfontein.
It will be the second time World Cup winner Wilkinson has led his country, and he will skipper a side showing six changes and one positional switch from a week ago.
Ashton made it clear there was only ever going to be one choice for the captains armband when it was revealed Jason Robinson would be unable to take his position in the side.
“There was never going to be anyone else,” stated Ashton.
“He has captained the side before and he plays in a position where a lot of the game depends on what he does and he has a lot of responsibility in directing the game.
“So from that point of view it was a very logical choice to make and I have every confidence he will do the job to the best of his ability.
“Jonny has been great the last few days. He virtually ran the team run and in terms of organization it was superb. He was saying all the right things as far as motivation went and now it is key for him to transfer all of that onto the field now.”
Newcastle center Jamie Noon will play on the right wing in place of Iain Balshaw, while Saracens’ Dan Scarbrough steps in for Robinson and makes a first England appearance for almost four years.
Many expected to see Noon line up in the centres with Newcastle team mate Matthew Tait, and Ashton certainly didn’t rule out the possibility of seeing Noon appear in the centres.
“There may well be certain situations when you see him (Noon) appear in midfield,” said Ashton with a wry smile.
As expected, Bath prop Matt Stevens is preferred to Stuart Turner, with Bristol Lock Roy Winters partnering Alex Brown in the second row, while new cap Ben Skirving will wear the number eight shirt, with Magnus Lund replacing injured open side flanker Andy Hazell.
Ashton revealed he is excited about seeing what the athletic Skirving can bring to the England side tomorrow.
“He is very athletic and we are hoping he can use that to good effect on Saturday,” said Ashton.
“If he can get the ball in hand he has got great pace and a lot of go forward. We will certainly be looking for a more combative performance against their back row than we had last week.”
A reshuffled back-row sees Nick Easter switching to blind side, while Harlequins full-back Mike Brown has made an unexpectedly quick recovery from the stomach virus that has affected several England players on tour.
Brown was formally ruled out of the running by England head coach Brian Ashton two days ago, but he has been declared fit to retain the number 15 jersey and Ashton had no qualms about including him in the starting side.
“His recover has been Lazarus like really. Two days ago he was too ill to even fly home and now he is medically fit to play on Saturday,” said Ashton.
Bath full-back prospect Nick Abendanon, who only arrived in South Africa yesterday, will be on the replacements bench.
Johannesburg-born Abendanon, 20, has impressed for his club this season, and is rated by many judges as having an outstanding chance of making the World Cup squad.
The England bench includes four players from Sale, with Turner, Chris Jones and Dean Schofield all dropping down from the starting XV on duty in Bloemfontein.
England are striving to avoid an eighth successive away defeat, while they have not won in the southern hemisphere since the 2003 World Cup final.
But they are unlikely to end either of those sequences tomorrow, with South Africa red-hot favorites for another landslide success.
England: 15 Mike Brown, 14 Jamie Noon, 13 Matthew Tait, 12 Toby Flood, 11 Dan Scarbrough, 10 Jonny Wilkinson (c), 9 Andy Gomarsall, 8 Ben Skirving, 7 Magnus Lund, 6 Nick Easter, 5 Alex Brown, 4 Roy Winters, 3 Matt Stevens, 2 Mark Regan, 1 Kevin Yates.
Replacements: 16 Andy Titterell, 17 Stuart Turner, 18 Dean Schofield, 19 Chris Jones, 20 Sean Perry, 21 Anthony Allen, 22 Nick Abendanon.
Date: Saturday, 2 June
Venue: Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria
Kick-off: 15:00 (13:00 GMT)
Conditions:
Referee: Joel Jutge (France)
Touch judges: Steve Walsh (New Zealand), Malcolm Changleng (Scotland)
Television match official: Derek Bevan (Wales)
By Marcus Leach in Centurion
