Cueto adds to English woes as All Blacks loom

ENGLAND’S injury problems continue to mount ahead of their Twickenham showdown with World Cup favourites New Zealand on Sunday.

Wing Mark Cueto is the latest high-profile casualty, increasing England’s alarming list of absentees to a dozen. The gloom might not end there as Leicester lock Ben Kay has been given until tomorrow to prove his fitness after suffering a dead leg during the Tigers’ Heineken Cup victory over Cardiff Blues last weekend.

While head coach Andy Robinson has adopted a resilient stance in the face of increasingly overwhelming odds, England will go into battle on Sunday as 5-2 underdogs as they try to avoid suffering a 34-year low of six successive Test defeats.

Cueto’s absence — he has failed to recover from an ankle injury sustained during Sale Sharks’ Heineken Cup defeat against the Ospreys 11 days ago — opens the door for uncapped Wasps wing Paul Sackey. The 26-year-old is one of only four players in Premiership history to have scored more than 50 league tries, and he now joins fellow debutants Gloucester centre Anthony Allen and Bristol scrum-half Shaun Perry in facing the All Blacks.

Robinson has also named an uncapped player on the bench, 34-year-old Sale prop Stuart Turner, and the England boss must now hope he will avoid further disruption ahead of the weekend.

The list of non-starters reads like a who’s who of English rugby — Cueto, Jonny Wilkinson, Josh Lewsey, Steve Borthwick and Matt Stevens are among those unavailable — while Robinson went outside his squad today in calling up three extra players for training, Bristol number eight Dan Ward-Smith, Castres centre Phil Christophers and Wasps full-back Mark Van Gisbergen, who is on the bench.

Cueto was officially ruled out of the running yesterday, and Robinson admits it will be “touch and go” whether or not he will be fit to face Argentina on Saturday week.

New Zealand will arrive at Twickenham in front of a ground record crowd of 82,000, and rarely can England have been written off to such a degree for a match on home soil.

Robinson, though, is looking for the bumper audience to get behind England and make it a day to savour for the world champions as they begin a 14-game countdown to next year’s World Cup defence.

Robinson confirmed that 20-year-old Allen’s performance for Gloucester against Leinster in the Heineken Cup 10 days ago had left a major impression on England’s coaching staff.

“His performance in that match against Brian O’Driscoll and Gordon D’Arcy was very assured. He took the game to them,” Robinson added.