Leonard fighting to be fit for Wales clash

Jason Leonard is battling to be fit for England’s RBS 6 Nations Championships clash against Wales at the Millennium Stadium next Saturday.

Harlequins prop Leonard made his 100th Test match appearance in England’s 25-17 victory over France at Twickenham today.

But he was forced out of the action seven minutes before half-time and his prospects of facing Wales in Cardiff don’t look good.

“Jason has pulled a hamstring, and his is pretty down. It is not great for next week,” said England boss Clive Woodward.

If Leonard is ruled out, then Leicester prop Graham Rowntree would be his likely replacement as England look for a second championship victory in eight days.

Despite losing their hugely-experienced front-row forward and losing the try-count 3-1, England still prevailed in front of a 73,500 crowd.

Full-back Jason Robinson claimed their solitary touchdown early in the second half but 20 points from fly-half Jonny Wilkinson proved significant.

The ever-reliable Wilkinson kicked five penalties, a drop goal and a conversion to take him past 600 points for England.

“I am very pleased that we won. It has been a difficult week and it is hats off to the players,” Woodward added.

“We will be self-critical about this performance. We built a 25-7 lead but then we probably produced the worst 25 minutes we have played for a long, long time.

“In the end, we were stronger than them, and it is certainly a lot nicer being in this position than the one we were in 12 months ago when we lost in Paris.

“We didn’t keep hold of the ball from numbers one to 15, and for some reason we decided to kick the ball away. We lost some direction and composure during those last 25 minutes.

“When Robinson scored, I thought that the French were hanging and I thought that there were 40 or 50 points on the board for us.

“We are keeping our feet firmly on the ground. We didn’t have the pace and intensity that we had during the autumn internationals, but I don’t think that France did either.

“Both teams seemed a bit flat. We only played in spurts, and we didn’t seem able to keep the continuity going, but the ramifications of losing this game were too huge to think about.”

England went into the game having been told only last night of the sudden death of 21-year-old scrum-half Nick Duncombe from meningitis.

Duncombe won two England caps last season and his passing has had a profound effect on the England squad.

“Mark Evans (Harlequins chief executive) came to the team hotel last night and told all the Harlequins players face-to-face,” Woodward said.

“Had Nick not been injured going into this game, then he would probably have been on the bench today.

“We got together, pulled together and got on with it. It was tragic news in so many ways.”