Noon on standby for England

Jamie Noon is ready to answer England’s latest injury SOS and replace Mike Tindall in the team to play Italy at Twickenham tomorrow.

Noon was left out of the original matchday 22 but returned to the squad yesterday after Tindall damaged his back while training in the gym.

If Tindall is ruled out, Noon is favourite to go straight into the team at outside centre with the more versatile Mathew Tait remaining on the bench.

England manager Martin Johnson admitted Tindall’s fitness was “a concern” but insisted he would not rush into any decision over whether to make another late change.

Johnson has already had to alter his starting XV once this week with scrum-half Harry Ellis called in to replace Danny Care, who slipped on the ice at England’s training base and damaged ankle ligaments.

“Mike is a bit sore. He ricked his back in the gym yesterday and we will have to see how it goes. It is a concern,” said Johnson.

“The medical guys are looking at him but he was a bit sore overnight. Jamie Noon has come down and we have Tait as well who is named on the bench. We will make the call when we need to.

“They can both play 13. Tindall is having some treatment now so we will take direction from the medics and see what they think and we will go from there. There is no definitive time on it. We will make the call when we need to.”

Noon offers Johnson a like-for-like replacement for Tindall as a physical, hard-tackling outside centre.

The 29-year-old cemented his place in the England team last year after Tindall suffered a perforated liver during the opening game of the 2008 RBS 6 Nations, an injury that left him in intensive care.

Noon went on to feature in all of England’s 10 remaining Tests of the year and started in nine of them, including all four autumn internationals.

Tindall’s injury is the latest in a long line to have hampered England’s Six Nations preparations. Tom Rees, Lewis Moody, Michael Lipman, Tom Palmer, Ugo Monye and Toby Flood were all injured before Johnson named his team on Tuesday while prop Matt Stevens is suspended after failing a drugs test.

“These things happen. We don’t sit around thinking: ’Oh, we have lost X, Y and Z’. Guys get hurt and you move on with the next guy. They are good players,” Johnson added.

“The statistics say that 25% of your squad will be injured at any one point, so it will happen but we are thinking about the game.

“We have been in camp for two weeks and we want to play.”

England have been forced to hold their training runs indoors this week, while the coaches have spent each morning shovelling snow in order to hold scrummaging sessions at their Pennyhill Park base.

“It is good to see them doing some physical work,” joked number eight Nick Easter.

It is vital preparation. Italy’s main strengths lie up front and England expect an attritional afternoon at Twickenham against an Azzurri pack supplemented by Mauro Bergamasco’s move from flanker to scrum-half.

England struggled in the forward exchanges during the autumn but are determined to win the battle tomorrow and pile the pressure on Bergamasco.

“It is an interesting call and it does give them some advantages somewhere - having three flankers makes them defensively strong – but in terms of his kicking and passing game we will have to see,” said Johnson.

“He has never played there in a meaningful game. It is an opportunity for us to put him under pressure, make things difficult for him.

“The risk for us is that we cannot think he will struggle. He could play very well for all we know and we will have to adapt.”

Johnson suffered a rude awakening to the world of coaching as England suffered a hat-trick of heavy autumn defeats to Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.

England captain Steve Borthwick demanded in a passionate address this week that his players are out to “set the record straight” after letting themselves down in November.

Johnson has recalled the experienced head and steady hands of Andy Goode to fly-half while Mark Cueto returns on the wing for his first appearance since the 2007 World Cup final.

Steffon Armitage, the form flanker in the Guinness Premiership, will make his Test debut on the openside flank and join brother Delon in the team.

And judging by the intense demeanour Johnson and Easter presented at the team hotel today, England are ready for action.

“We are not going to lose. We are going to win,” said Easter.

“We have done some good work in the last two weeks. We had an excellent week in Portugal working on the issues we had against the best three teams in the autumn and working on what went well for us.

“The guys are chomping at the bit to get going now.”