Gloucester's Tom Beim and Rob Fidler have become the latest 11th-hour call-ups to the injury-ravaged England squad who fly out this evening on a two-week tour of Argentina without 35 leading players.
Faced with the weekend loss of another four men - Leon Lloyd, Simon Shaw and Josh Lewsey, plus Shaw's original replacement Ed Pearce - the England manager Clive Woodward has also summoned the Newcastle centre Tom May for a trip which involves one midweek game and a solitary Test against the Pumas in Buenos Aires on Saturday week.
Beim and Fidler were both capped on England's "Tour from Hell" to the southern hemisphere in 1998 and now have an unexpected chance to catch Woodward's eye after Lloyd and Shaw pulled out with neck injuries. Pearce, who was married on Friday, damaged an ankle on Saturday and withdrew.
Even in James Simpson-Daniel's enforced absence, there are still five Gloucester players in the reshuffled squad but Lewsey's wrist injury has left another vacancy in the back-line. Woodward, though, can still face the Pumas with four of his front-line forwards, the tour skipper Phil Vickery, his front-row partner Steve Thompson and the Leicester pair Ben Kay and Lewis Moody.
Sale's winger Mark Cueto and the London Irish pair of Geoff Appleford and Michael Horak will be among those hopeful that the trip yields a precious full cap and Vickery believes that the trip will be worthwhile in terms of identifying possible World Cup squad contenders.
"The important thing is to get the players out there to experience what a Test match week is like. It's going to be extremely hostile," said Vickery. "Having a lot of young kids is going to be a good thing because no one will be expecting us to do anything."
England squad: Backs: Horak (London Irish), Stimpson (Leicester), Beim (Gloucester), Christophers (Bristol), Cueto (Sale), Rees (Bristol), Appleford (London Irish), Johnston (Saracens), May (Newcastle), Sorrell (Saracens), Hodgson (Sale), Walder (Newcastle), Gomarsall (Gloucester), Walshe (Sale).
Forwards: Flatman ( Saracens), Morris (Northampton), Vickery (Gloucester, capt), Woodman (Gloucester), Regan (Bath), Thompson (Northampton), Codling (Harlequins), Fidler (Gloucester), Kay (Leicester), Vyvyan (Newcastle), Anglesea (Sale), Balding (Leicester), Danaher (London Irish), Moody (Leicester), Sanderson (Sale), Worsley (Wasps).
