Defence job for Farrell in England's new cabinet

The player whose prospects of making the final 30 have been undermined by a catalogue of misfortune will resume his fractured international career against Wales at Twickenham on Saturday in a new role.

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Making a case for the defence: Andy Farrell preparing to face Wales

As a thumping endorsement of their faith, England have promoted Farrell to their cabinet as minister for defence.

He still has to secure a place amid frantic competition for the problematic No.12 jersey but England's coaches, under Brian Ashton, are clearly banking on his presence for the colossal World Cup ties against South Africa in Paris on September 14 and Samoa in Nantes eight days later.

"We've decided to make Andy defence captain," said Mike Ford, England's defence coach. "The leadership he's shown over the past six weeks has prompted the coaches to give him that title.

"He is looking the part physically. Defensively, he knows exactly what I want and when I want it. We have every confidence in him to be adaptable so he can change things on the hoof, not just in defence but in attack as well.

"He understands Brian's philosophy. People might not see those flashy breaks but Andy doesn't make mistakes. He runs north to south, can off-load the ball and rarely misses a tackle.

"He knows this is a big game, that there are other players all vying for the same position and he's got first crack at putting some points on the board.

"The pressure of a World Cup is absolutely huge. We need players who are not going to bottle it and we'll find out a lot in the next few weeks." In his understated way, Farrell always gives the impression that no challenge is too daunting, that nothing fazes 'Faz'.

Saturday's exercise is about as big as they come in terms of securing the ultimate objective behind his cross-code transfer from Wigan to Saracens in May 2004.

If he gets there he will have done it the hard way, passing repeated tests of character which would have broken a lesser man.

After missing an entire season because of a knee operation, a freakish big toe injury and back problems caused by a car accident, Farrell had barely got a foothold on the England ladder when he found himself savaged in some quarters for the Croke Park fiasco - as if it was somehow his fault that the Red Rose pack were smashed from pillar to post and back again by Ireland.

In South Africa at the end of last season, an accidental collision in training put him out of both Tests and into the hands of a neurosurgeon over a severe dose of concussion.

Now, for the first time since leaving Wigan, Farrell is fitter than at any stage since his last match for Great Britain some three years ago. "The criticism he got outside the camp after the Irish game was unfair and cruel but it was there all the same," said Ford. "I did wonder if he'd ever get back to 100 per cent fitness but I always believed in him.

"In our minds we pretty much know who we'd like to take to the World Cup. Some people are in front of others at this stage and they have to go out now with the confidence to enhance what we think of them."

Farrell will take it in his stride.

"Some people see it as a trial game but I suppose every match for your country is a trial because you want to play in the next one," he said. "I'm excited about playing again. We have to play well as a team otherwise the past few weeks will have been wasted."

He is competing with the accomplished but brittle Mike Catt and young guns Toby Flood and Olly Barkley.

Two will miss out, although Flood and Barkley will have a second shot at making the squad as the other goalkicking fly half behind Jonny Wilkinson, a position which ought to have been Charlie Hodgson's for the taking.

After spending weeks at a clinic in Vermont under the supervision of American knee specialist Bill Knowles, the Sale fly half recovered in time to make the World Cup training squad.

Out of action since smashing his knee last November, he surely had to play some part tomorrow and his absence suggests England do not consider him fit enough.

"There are a lot of fed-up people in the England camp because they're not playing," said skipper Phil Vickery, before leaving the team's West Country base.

"We all knew it would come to this. Brian and the other coaches have a tough job selecting the final 30 and I wouldn't want to be the one having to decide.

"We're not school kids. We know there is no easy way of telling someone he's not going to the World Cup."