James Haskell a key ingredient in beefed-up pack as England prepare for Argentina

Chris Jones
11 Nov 2009

Martin Johnson today made four changes to his mis-firing England team in a bid to kick-start their autumn Test series against Argentina at Twickenham on Saturday.

England lost 18-9 to Australia last weekend and the team manager has made three changes in the forwards, with James Haskell, Dylan Hartley and Duncan Bell coming in from the start to beef up the pack.

Haskell, now playing for Stade Francais, replaces Leicester No8 Jordan Crane, hooker Steve Thompson makes way for Northampton captain Hartley while Bell takes over at tight head prop from the injured David Wilson. Bell, 35, last started for England in the Six Nations in 2005 and will be winning his fourth cap.

The final and most significant change will see London Irish scrum-half Paul Hodgson winning his fifth cap, and his first start, for England when he takes over from Danny Care, who had
problems dealing with the painfully slow ball produced by the pack against Australia.

Johnson said today that the changes he had made to the team were all close calls but admitted that England needed to be more consistent in their approach against Argentina.

He said: “You cannot say one area went well and one area went badly against Australia.

“We had problems in our line-out and that affected our quick ball. Accuracy will help us there and that will improve as we play more Test matches under intense pressure.

“We have to be more consistent and we will be better for having played as well as trained together.

“Was it turgid against Australia? Well, we did not handle the slow ball very well. Rugby can be a very simple game, we just have to make it that way.”

The changes mean Johnson has given the entire team a new “spine” — changing hooker, No8 and scrum-half — to leave Jonny Wilkinson, the fly-half, to form a new partnership in training this week with Hodgson.

Backs coach Brian Smith will hope that the pair can deliver on Saturday after rating the team as only half as good as they should have been against the Australians.

Smith said: “We thought we were 50 per cent effective in our attacking performance on Saturday and we are aiming for 75 per cent in this game before stepping it up against New Zealand.

“Going into the Wallabies match we had scored 24 tries in our previous eight matches and so we were entitled to think we could have scored against Australia. Creating tries against Southern Hemisphere teams is an issue that we are trying to address.

“We left a few tries out there on Saturday and have to get back on the horse and with the weather likely to create difficult conditions we are going to be more calculated in how we pull the trigger. We did a few silly things against the Wallabies and that is why we are looking for a step up against Argentina. We are not about making excuses because that's not the culture Martin Johnson is creating.”

Smith did, though, defend the way Wilkinson controlled the back division and insisted the Toulon No10 will continue to stand deep when receiving the ball in order to exploit the opposition's defence. He also confirmed that the combination of Wilkinson and Shane Geraghty was the best way of unlocking opposition defences rather than choosing two strong running centres to spearhead the attack.

He said: “Just standing flat in attack makes it too easy for the defence and we have to use the power game as part of our attack. When you examine the video, we caused Australia problems in the first 20 minutes.

“However, our kicking went off the boil and we didn't control territory and were left chasing the game. There was also too much lateral passing, which was very annoying.”

Meanwhile Simon Shaw, the Lions and Wasps lock, took part in training today having recovered from a foot injury and is in line for a recall against New Zealand at Twickenham next weekend.

England line-up

U Monye (Harlequins)
M Cueto (Sale)
D Hipkiss (Leicester)
S Geraghty (N'hampton)
M Banahan (Bath)
J Wilkinson (Toulon)
P Hodgson (Lon Irish)
T Payne (Wasps)
D Hartley (N'hampton)
D Bell (Bath)
L Deacon (Leicester)
S Borthwick (Saracens)
T Croft (Leicester)
L Moody (Leicester)
J Haskell (St Francais)

Reps: P Doran-Jones (Gloucs), S Thompson (Brive), C Lawes (N'hampton), J Worsley (Wasps), D Care (Quins), A Goode (Brive), A Erinle (Biarritz)