Flood relief at avoiding Wilko's fate

After the Murrayfield mugging, Jonny Wilkinson's dropping, John Fletcher's sacking by Newcastle and a dodgy right knee, the club's 22-year-old inside back went about his England business grateful to have avoided the same fate as his senior partner.

'Since the Scotland game, everyone's been worried, thinking whose head was going to roll,' said Flood. 'We were all in that situation.

'After last weekend, it was very much a case of: "That was terrible. Who's going to go?"

'I will put my hand up and say "Yeah, I thought I was one". If Jonny has been dropped then anyone could be the next. For that to happen must have taken the coaches a long time to debate.

'Brian Ashton said that his form has been inconsistent. To be honest, you could say that about the whole team.

'I've been pleased with parts of my games, disappointed with others. I've found it difficult to put my mark on the Six Nations and at times I've felt a bit in limbo.

'Now it's a case of putting in a good performance and making sure of staying in the team.'

Flood, whose tries against Wales and Italy amount to almost half of England's total in another underachieving Six Nations, will be striking up a brand new midfield partnership with Danny Cipriani.

Given that they have just nine Test starts (all Flood's) between them, Ireland cannot be sure what to expect at Twickenham on Saturday.

'With nothing to play for in terms of the title, that might free up our back play so we can produce a bit more excitement,' said Flood.

'We've been desperate to do that all tournament. It's tough and I wouldn't want to say that Jonny's struggled but there is a feeling that I wish I could have done more.

'When I made my first start for England I was lucky enough to have Mike Catt's wealth of experience on the inside to help me through it.

'Danny's only got me so we'll have to wait and see how it goes. What he has got is all the exuberance of youth, although, come to think of it, I'm only two years older.'

Forced into an early exit against Scotland because of injury, Flood has a knee condition which may prevent him from being able to act either as the principal place-kicker or Cipriani's back-up.

'I'm fine to play on Saturday but there's probably a bit of cartilage floating around in my knee,' he said. 'I've had it for a couple of months and it will need an operation some time soon.'

At club level Flood is furious at Newcastle's sacking of Fletcher as director of rugby, an announcement made on Tuesday within minutes of England naming their team at their base almost 300 miles away in Bath.

The club, thrashing about in deep water just two places off the bottom of the Premiership, will find an irate quartet of international backs on their hands when Messrs Flood, Wilkinson, Jamie Noon and Mathew Tait return from national duty next week.

'This has probably been the worst week of my life,' said Flood. 'To lose to Scotland and then find out two days later that the guy I've played rugby for from the age of 11 has been removed from the club is devastating.

'It's almost as if they've thought: "Let's get this news out while the boys are away".

'Fletch has been the rock of my career. It's very emotional when you speak to him on the phone but he's the sort of guy to say: "Don't worry about me. I'll crack on. You just worry about Twickenham on Saturday".'