The announcement of Martin Johnson's first England squad was always going to be slightly surreal. How carefully do you deconstruct the choices of a head coach who has never picked a club team in his life, does not officially start work until July 1 and is not actually going to be present on tour himself? It reminds me of the splendid cricket story, possibly apocryphal, concerning the Surrey batsman Monte Lynch's selection for England's one-day side. The panel had been deliberating for hours over the final batting place and patience was running out. "So who are we going to pick?" "I've no idea but it must be time for lunch (sic)." And so it came to pass that Lynch got the nod, to the surprise of virtually everyone.
Joking aside, Johnson is nobody's fool. There is no point taking undue risks before he formally starts his new job and his inaugural 32-man squad instantly underlines that fact. It may be that Brian Ashton would have picked a broadly similar group had he still been in situ. But Johnson's strength, for now, is that he knows precisely who the best players in the country are, either from first-hand experience or by recommendation from one of his trusted ex-colleagues such as Dean Richards or Dorian West.
Thus it is that the uncapped likes of Danny Care and Dylan Hartley have made the senior party to tour New Zealand and could easily make their Test debuts in Auckland on June 14. Care has looked the sharpest of the scrum-half contenders for the past couple of months and deserves his chance. Hartley has had a season out of the limelight, including a six-month suspension for eye-gouging, but is apparently channelling his aggression better these days.
There are six uncapped players in all, with Topsy Ojo, Nick Kennedy and David Paice gaining recognition on the back of London Irish's recent improvement. Jason Hobson of Bristol fills the gap left by Phil Vickery's absence with a knee problem, with the captaincy passing to Steve Borthwick. Mike Tindall must be considered a shade unlucky in that regard and the presence of the departing Newcastle centre Toby Flood in the squad is also bad news for Shane Geraghty, who has to be content with a place in the Saxons line-up.
Among those sidelined by injury or rested are Jonny Wilkinson, Harry Ellis, Lewis Moody, Simon Shaw, Josh Lewsey and James Simpson-Daniel, with the exciting likes of Ben Foden and Tom Varndell selected in the shadow Saxons squad which will feature at the Churchill Cup in North America under the command of Steve Bates and Toby Booth. Saracens' Richard Haughton has failed to make either party and there is only one Sarries player named in the 60-strong list of names.
If the key men in the senior party stay fit - the intention is to field a strongish side against the Barbarians on June 1, the day before the squad fly out - and the new players in the front five step up physically, there is no reason why England cannot pose the rebuilding All Blacks some problems. The last few weeks in the Guinness Premiership have yielded some impressive rugby and the English will hope to attack in more areas than they managed during the World Cup. It is also worth stressing that, while Johnson has had the casting vote in terms of picking the squad, the final say in terms of selecting the Test sides in New Zealand will belong to Rob Andrew, the tour manager.
England squad to tour New Zealand
Backs: M Brown (Harlequins), T Ojo (London Irish), D Strettle (Harlequins), P Sackey (Wasps), M Tait (Newcastle), J Noon (Newcastle), M Tindall (Gloucester), O Barkley (Bath), T Flood (Newcastle), D Cipriani (Wasps), C Hodgson (Sale Sharks), D Care (Harlequins), P Richards (London Irish), R Wigglesworth (Sale).
Forwards: D Hartley (Northampton), L Mears (Bath), D Paice (London Irish), T Payne (Wasps), A Sheridan (Sale), M Stevens (Bath), J Hobson (Bristol), S Borthwick (Bath), N Kennedy (London Irish), T Palmer (Wasps), B Kay (Leicester), T Croft (Leicester), J Haskell (Wasps), M Lipman (Bath), T Rees (Wasps), N Easter (Harlequins), L Narraway (Gloucester), J Worsley (Wasps).
England Saxons squad for Churchill Cup in USA and Canada
Backs: N Abendanon (Bath), A Allen (Gloucester), M Banahan (Bath), L Dickson (Newcastle), B Foden (Sale Sharks), P Hodgson (London Irish), A Jarvis (Harlequins), R Lamb (Gloucester), U Monye (Harlequins), O Smith (Leicester), T Varndell (Leicester), D Waldouck (Wasps).
Forwards: S Armitage (London Irish), R Blaze (Leicester), A Brown (Gloucester), G Chuter (Leicester), A Clarke (Bristol), J Crane (Leicester), J Forster (Gloucester), T Guest (Harlequins), C Jones (Sale Sharks), N Lloyd (Saracens), C Robshaw (Harlequins), W Skinner (Harlequins, capt), G Skivington (Wasps), A Titterrell (Gloucester), R Webber (Wasps), D Wilson (Newcastle).
The Lion King
The worst-kept secret in rugby will finally be confirmed tomorrow when Ian McGeechan is formally unveiled as coach of the British and Irish Lions for the 2009 tour to South Africa. Already it feels like a very different type of expedition to 2005, which is not exactly a surprise. At the moment you would back the Springboks to win the series but a week is a very long time in modern rugby, never mind a year. And if anyone can pull the threads together and convince a bunch of disparate players that a slice of history is within their grasp it is the modest 'Geech', poised to make his seventh Lions trip in total and his fifth as a coach. He makes Sir Alex Ferguson look like a novice.
Number crunching
The International Rugby Board attracts a huge amount of flak so it is only fair to record it has pledged to pump £48m into high-performance schemes in 22 countries over the next four years. Russia, Spain and Namibia have been added to the list of nations being actively encouraged to aim high, while £1.2m will be invested in spreading the word in the potentially lucrative markets of India, China and Mexico. Is this money well spent? I guess we will only know in 20 years' time when England are struggling to win Tests in Beijing and Delhi. With a population set to exceed 1.46 billion by 2020, the Chinese should at least be able to scrape a team together.
