Only five World Cup stars line up for celebration match

ENGLAND’S so-called World Cup celebration match at Twickenham next week will feature just five players who started the final against Australia in Sydney three weeks ago.

But red rose supremo Clive Woodward last night offered a positive outlook on the non-cap Zurich World Champions Challenge between an England XV and the New Zealand Barbarians.

A sold-out Twickenham will not see World Cup heroes like Jonny Wilkinson, Martin Johnson or Lawrence Dallaglio in action tomorrow week.

Fly-half match-winner Wilkinson was not considered because of a neck/shoulder injury, but the likes of Will Greenwood, Ben Cohen, Matt Dawson and Neil Back are also missing.

The five World Cup starters named by Woodward in a 22-man squad are wing Jason Robinson, centre Mike Tindall, hooker Steve Thompson, prop Phil Vickery and flanker Richard Hill.

Gloucester star Vickery will captain the team in Johnson's absence.

England's entire World Cup squad though, will be present to parade the Webb Ellis Trophy on a lap of honour immediately after the match.

And that includes players such as Johnson, Back, Ben Kay and Mike Catt, who are likely to be on Zurich Premiership duty for their clubs the same day.

Johnson and his Leicester team-mates are at Northampton that afternoon, with Bath ace Catt lining up against Newcastle. But a 5pm Twickenham kick-off means that they should make it for the post-match parade, especially as the Rugby Football Union are providing transport.

Seven of Woodward's 22 were not even chosen for Australia James Simpson-Daniel, Ollie Smith, Charlie Hodgson, Mike Worsley, Andrew Sheridan, Hugh Vyvyan and Pat Sanderson.

But Hodgson, Wilkinson's fly-half understudy, would have made it had he not suffered a serious knee injury during last season's Six Nations Championship.

"The squad includes 15 of the 31 from the World Cup, and five of the nine players who didn't make the final 22 for the World Cup final, and I am sure they will want to do everything they can to make my Six Nations selections as difficult as possible.

"The England and New Zealand Barbarians teams have been selected with the full support of the Zurich Premiership clubs through the selection of no more than three players from each Premiership club (including players to the New Zealand side).