Hodgson handed keys to No 10 again as exile finally over

England finally got round to handing their No 10 jersey back to Charlie Hodgson yesterday after passing it around among just about every other eligible Premiership fly half in his absence.

As a dummy run for the serious business of securing his place against the All Blacks in Auckland on June 14, Sunday's friendly against the Barbarians at Twickenham puts the Yorkshireman on national duty there for the first time in 18 months.

Charlie Hodgson of England catches the ball during an England training session at Bath University

Seven fly halves have come and gone since then, along with two head coaches. Hodgson, unable to save Andy Robinson from the guillotine and unemployed for all but a few minutes of Brian Ashton's most miserable match before he, too, lost his head, has been waiting since November 2006 for a reprieve to avoid being remembered as Jonny Wilkinson's understudy.

That it comes in the shape of an experimental England XV for a match of non-Test status will not lessen its significance for Hodgson one iota.

"This is a massive opportunity for me," he said with the New Zealand Tests looming large on the horizon. "This is the first one I've had for a long time in an England shirt and I want to make sure I grab it with both hands.

"I wouldn't say I thought my England career had come to an end but being injured and seeing others get ahead of me made it tough.

"You never give up hope. I've always maintained my belief I can play at the highest level, as I've proved before. I've always wanted to be the best I can and if that is good enough to play for England, brilliant. Danny, Jonny and the likes of Ryan Lamb are very good players and you realise you have to keep improving to compete against the likes of them."

Since losing his place, initially because of injury, Hodgson has been succeeded, in chronological order, by Andy Goode, Toby Flood, Wilkinson, Shane Geraghty, Olly Barkley, Mike Catt and Danny Cipriani.

The charge of the new brigade and Ashton's revealing refusal to give Hodgson as much as a minute's game time despite including him in his pre-World Cup squad raised doubts over his Test future.

The 27-year-old has missed every one of England's last 23 internationals apart from the closing 13 minutes at Murrayfield 12 weeks ago when they pitched him into a non-performance so excruciatingly bad that Ashton could not survive despite plucking up the courage to drop Wilkinson and introduce Cipriani.

Had it not been for the young Wasp's grotesque ankle injury, Hodgson would have made the trip as his back-up.

The fact that the Sale player possessed a repertoire of passing and kicking skills superior to those of any other English fly half pre-Cipriani made his omission under Ashton a baffling one even after all the excuses about his various injuries had been taken into account.

Rob Andrew, picking the team in his capacity as tour manager in Martin Johnson's unavoidable absence, had no hesitation about his choice even if injury had narrowed it by eliminating Cipriani, Wilkinson and Geraghty.

Andrew said: "We want Charlie to play and stake a claim for selection in the first Test against the All Blacks in two weeks. Charlie has been great this week.

"We only met up on Monday evening and he's been running the show alongside Toby at 12. Danny's injury is a big blow but the medical people are very pleased with the operation. There are no reports of any complications but with any major surgery you have to wait and see."

The Leicester-Wasps Grand Final and Bath's exertions in winning Europe's secondary club competition last weekend mean England confronting the Baa-baas without players from three of their top four clubs.

Nick Easter captains a team built around six uncapped players, the majority of whom are among the second-string Saxons squad for the Churchill Cup series in north America.

Saracens loosehead Nick Lloyd, London Irish hooker David Paice and Bristol tighthead Jason Hobson form a non-Test front row. The newcomers include two more London Irish players, wing Topsy Ojo and lock Nick Kennedy, plus Harlequins flanker Will Skinner.

Gloucester wing James Simpson- Daniel, out of test action for the last 12 months due to a combination of illness and injury, was named the Guinness Premiership's player of the season last night. Cipriani was the "discovery of the season".

ENGLAND TEAM

M Brown (Harlequins); T Ojo (London Irish),
M Tait (Newcastle), T Flood (Newcastle),
D Strettle (Harlequins); C Hodgson (Sale),
R Wigglesworth (Sale); N Lloyd (Saracens),
D Paice (London Irish), J Hobson (Bristol),
C Jones (Sale), N Kennedy (London Irish),
L Narraway (Gloucester), N Easter
(Harlequins, capt), W Skinner (Harlequins).
Substitutes: D Hartley (Northampton),
D Wilson (Newcastle), S Hooper
(Leeds Carnegie), T Guest (Harlequins),
D Care (Harlequins), P Richards
(London Irish), U Monye (Harlequins).