Woodward: World Cup places up for grabs

England coach Clive Woodward today threw down the gauntlet to his fringe players to stake their claims for a place in his World Cup squad.

No caps are on offer when England take on the Barbarians in their end-of-season showpiece match at Twickenham on Sunday – but Woodward insisted there is plenty to play for.

First prize is a place in the party for the tour Down Under for Test matches against New Zealand and Australia, which will be named next week, along with the squad for the shadow tour which takes in matches against the USA, Canada and Japan.

“It’s a big weekend for a lot of these guys as to what happens next. There isn’t a single player in there who isn’t in contention for being on the main trip this summer,” said Woodward.

Woodward has named five uncapped players in his starting line-up – Sale Sharks forward Chris Jones at number eight, Bristol lock Alex Brown, his clubmate Michael Lipman at number seven, Leeds full-back Dan Scarbrough and powerful Sale wing/three-quarter Mark Cueto.

The team will be captained by Lions and Gloucester tighthead prop Phil Vickery, who missed England’s successful Grand Slam campaign because of a back injury which ruled him out for much of the season.

Newcastle’s Dave Walder, who has figured in just three club matches since breaking his leg last August, has been called up and handed the chance to secure a place as one of the understudies to Jonny Wilkinson, his club skipper, whose England deputy Charlie Hodgson is a definite non-starter for the summer tour following his knee ligament operation.

Woodward decided not to select any of the first-choice side who completed the RBS 6 Nations Grand Slam with victory over Ireland in Dublin and he was also denied the services of Newcastle and Wasps players who are involved in the Parker Pen Challenge Cup final at Reading’s Madejski Stadium the same afternoon.

Despite the rival attraction, 60,000 tickets have already been sold for Twickenham and the Rugby Football Union are expecting a crowd of around 65,000.

Vickery and fellow Lions Kyran Bracken, Mark Regan and Martin Corry will provide Woodward’s experimental side with an experienced backbone as they bid to repeat last year’s resounding 53-29 victory over the Baa-baas.

Woodward revealed that prop Julian White, who last week signed for Leicester, Tigers flanker Lewis Moody and Sale back-row man Alex Sanderson will all miss the summer tour, along with Hodgson.

But he said: “In terms of the World Cup, Hodgson is the only one I am worried about. I’m hoping he is going to make it but I’m not sure.”

He pinpointed the back three and the back of the pack as the areas where there are particular opportunities for players to stake their claims.

Woodward revealed he decided not to include Dan Luger, the Harlequins wing who is moving to French club Perpignan next season, because of a niggling injury and the fact that he knows what he can do from his appearances in the England side.

“It gives me a chance to look at Cueto, Phil Christophers and Scarbrough. We are making very close calls between these players,” he said, describing the elevation of the newcomers to the England squad as “a good opportunity for them to see how we operate”.

Woodward will also be putting the back five forwards under scrutiny.

“We are very interested to see Chris Jones in the second row or at number eight,” he said.

“This is a big game for Martin Corry. I think he has had a mixed season for his club. He is in a very competitive position in the back row so it’s a colossal game for him.

“You have to take your chance and he has a big chance because he doesn’t get too many chances to start for England.”

Woodward was keen to stress that he does not really see the Barbarians game as a build-up to the World Cup, using it more as part of the selection process for the summer tour.

“These matches act as the end of the season for England, I don’t see them as anything to do with the World Cup,” he said.

He will only start to plan for that after next month’s Test against reigning world champions Australia, an encounter he describes as “a colossal game, a great Test match”.

After that there are World Cup warm-up games against Wales and France and Woodward, who was speaking after supervising training at England’s Pennyhill Park Hotel training quarters in Surrey, added: “I believe the World Cup preparations start when we report back here on July 21.”