It's trench warfare, Jonny, so get digging

If their returning fly half needed any reminding of where the holders are holed up going into Saturday's critical match against Samoa, the hobbling hero of last week's capitulation to the Springboks, Jason Robinson, duly provided it. 'We are in the trenches,' he said. 'Those who take the field in the next match simply have to do it.

Scroll down for more

'It starts with every individual. You can have the best coach in the world and the best trainer but, in the end, it's all down to the players on the field. We have to take all the criticism on the chin because we deserve it and we will keep getting it until we find a real performance.

'I've been saying for the last three weeks that there is a performance waiting to come out but I'm sick of saying the same thing. If we don't win against Samoa, we are going home early, for sure.

'It was such a shame we didn't come up with a performance last weekend because what a great atmosphere all those England supporters made. They will have been very disappointed but we need everyone behind us and the more who do that, the better it will be. There's still hope.'

Robinson, jogging gingerly along one perimeter of the Versailles club ground watched by several thousand schoolchildren who had been given the afternoon off for the occasion, refuses to abandon all hope that a pulled left hamstring has finished him. He knows that England must win their next two matches if he is to have a quarterfinal early next month to aim at.

Wilkinson could not be returning at a more desperate time. A fortnight after rolling his right ankle on the same training pitch, he will be named on Tuesday — barring any further mishaps, of course.

In these grim times, England draw comfort from whatever source they can find and in that respect Wilkinson's World Cup record will be welcomed like manna from heaven — nine starts and just the solitary defeat, by the All Blacks at Twickenham eight years ago.

Not surprisingly, England will change the other half of their midfield axis by restoring their other goalkicking fly half, Olly Barkley, subject to a fitness test today on the hip problem which sent them into the Springbok match without an established goalkicker.

Toby Flood's arrival in place of the injured Jamie Noon means they now have three, which indicates that Flood could be kicking nothing more than his heels over the next three weeks.

Wilkinson and Barkley have yet to play together in tandem, which makes them the 13th fly half-inside centre duo to be tried by England during the last 18 months, another striking example of the instability behind their decline. No fewer than 11 have been tried in one position or the other over that period — Barkley, Mike Catt, Andy Farrell, Wilkinson, Flood, Andy Goode, Noon, Charlie Hodgson, Anthony Allen, Stuart Abbott, Mike Tindall.

Head coach Brian Ashton, who has called up one 35-year-old prop, Stuart Turner of Sale, as temporary front row cover for another, Darren Crompton of Bristol, went for Flood rather than the bolder option of teenaged Wasp Danny Cipriani as a specialist full back, especially since they have none.

With Mark Cueto dropped and Robinson hors de combat, the candidates against Samoa are both wings-cum-centres — Josh Lewsey and Mathew Tait.

Despite defence coach Mike Ford making the all too obvious observation that England lack world-class players, Ashton was in no mood to make the same excuse.

'We have enough good England players to perform better than we have been,' he said. 'I take the ultimate responsibility for what's gone on. I accept the criticism but I don't accept that we haven't got the players.

'It's grossly unfair to pick out one player like Andy Farrell when the guys around him are not playing any better or any worse, yet people keep talking about the same player,' he said. 'The simple fact now is that we have to play two cup finals in two weeks and win both.'

As Wilkinson strains at the leash to make up for lost time, an old Newcastle team-mate will be waiting to ambush him at the Parc des Princes next week.

Epi Taione, whose unbeaten Tongans are England's last opponent in the pool competition, believes that his team from the South Seas pose a bigger threat than the Samoans, whom they beat 19-15 in Montpellier on Sunday.

One of the game's colourful characters who does not shy away from the fact that he bit Ireland's Denis Leamy on the arm ('I did the crime'), Taione has strong views on Wilkinson, on his former manager at Newcastle Rob Andrew and on President George Bush.

Taione said: 'England are not the same when Jonny's not there to control the game. He can knock over anyone. I used to look forward to our run-ins at Newcastle but Rob Andrew usually separated us.

'I'm looking forward to meeting Rob again. Is he still boring? He's the most boring man I've met! It's good we've beaten America. I don't like George Bush and now we're looking forward to having a right crack at South Africa this week and another right crack at England next week.'