Barkley: 'Pressure is on me'

Olly Barkley will be England’s centre of attention when the world champions tackle a RBS 6 Nations salvage job against France at Twickenham on Sunday.

And Bath back Barkley, recalled for his first Test match start since last season’s Six Nations defeat in Paris, knows he is under pressure to deliver.

Head coach Andy Robinson has reacted to England’s 11-9 defeat against a Gavin Henson-inspired Wales by making five personnel changes and two positional switches for the French clash.

Newcastle’s teenage midfield prodigy Mathew Tait, World Cup scrum-half Matt Dawson, injured prop Julian White and back-row pair Chris Jones and Andy Hazell all miss out following arguably the worst England performance in recent years.

Big-kicking Barkley will line up at inside centre – Jamie Noon moves across to wear Tait’s number 13 jersey – with Harry Ellis replacing Dawson.

Phil Vickery takes over from White, Lewis Moody ousts Hazell and Martin Corry lines up at number eight, meaning that Joe Worsley goes to blindside flanker.

Vickery, plagued by back problems last year, makes a first England appearance in more than 10 months, with White sidelined through a neck problem, and Ellis is handed a full Test debut.

While Robinson tonight dismissed any suggestion that Tait had been made a fall-guy for England’s painful Millennium Stadium demise, Barkley now takes on a pivotal tactical role.

England’s chronic lack of a midfield kicking presence meant they could not establish a territorial foothold against Wales, hence Barkley’s promotion from bench to starting line-up.

“I think on the whole, we lacked rhythm and pattern. We seemed to be at sixes and sevens, and really lacked that cohesion a team needs to possess,” said Barkley, whose second-half introduction in Cardiff was too little, too late.

“From my point of view, I don’t think we played enough decent field position. I think the Welsh looked susceptible once they were on the back foot, and I was trying to push them deep into their 22.

“That was one of the worst performances I have seen from an England side in a long time, just in terms of we lacked any rhythm or penetration. Any improvement from that, I think, will be easy to come by. What we saw against Wales wasn’t what we are about.

“Rhythm will be very important for us on Sunday. We lacked it to a massive extent last weekend, but I am pretty confident we will get it back on Sunday.

“I have been selected to come in and do a job. I know the pressure is on me to carry that forward, and I would rather have that pressure and be starting, than not,” he added.

The England team for stage two of their Six Nations campaign has a far more balanced and powerful look about it.

But Robinson, following successive defeats against Australia and Wales, plus the fearsome prospect of tackling Ireland in Dublin later this month, knows that losing to France is not an option.

“I am not here to blame Mathew Tait for last week, because I thought he did really well, and the selection is not doing that (blaming Tait),” he said.

“It’s looking at the position we are in at the moment. An important part of our strategy against Wales was to get our kicking game together, which is an important part of playing international rugby.

“But we didn’t do that, and it is a slight change of direction in terms of bringing Olly Barkley in to enable us to have two kickers and really put France on the back foot.

“The reason why we lost the game last weekend was that we didn’t dominate the field position, and secondly, we didn’t play.

“The forwards were sluggish. We weren’t able to keep hold of the ball, and nothing really down to Mathew Tait and Jamie Noon in the centres.

“We sat down with Mathew and talked it through. He’s going to remain with the squad this week, and he’s going to be involved in this Six Nations tournament. He was unfortunate he didn’t get the opportunities we wanted him to have.

“I am disappointed for him, I think we all are. I don’t see him as a 19-year-old, I see him as a rugby player, and like all rugby players, we get good times and bad times,” Robinson added.

“I just felt it was important for us, in terms of how we are going to play the game this weekend, that we had (Charlie) Hodgson, Barkley in terms of an axis, and also Henry Paul on the bench to maintain that axis.”

Gloucester centre Paul is back in England’s match-day 22, despite being substituted after just 26 minutes by Robinson against Australia in November.

Up-front, Corry’s return is particularly welcome, given his imperious form during the autumn Tests.

And the fact he hasn’t played since dislocating his elbow playing in Leicester’s Zurich Premiership victory over Gloucester on January 2, does not occupy Robinson’s thoughts.

“You saw with (Wales flanker) Martyn Williams last week in his performance, with him not playing for a month, suddenly coming in and giving an outstanding performance,” added the coach.

“Players of real quality can do that, and I think that’s what we are expecting from Martin Corry.”