Three Guinness Premiership matches between tonight and New Year's Day means a pretty hectic schedule for players and coaches, but if you have a bit of time over the holidays settle down with a pen and lots of paper and attempt to second guess Brian Ashton by picking his first England team - the one to play Scotland.
If you're faint-hearted and need a few clues, he'll give them in 12 days' time when England's new head coach announces his elite training squad. But it might be more fun to go for broke. List your starting XV for February 3, plus the replacements' bench and email them to the address below before January 1 and I'll sort out a prize - a couple of tickets for a Wasps home or away match of your choice - for the winner.
Finding the correct 22 will be difficult enough, but just in case more than one person reads Ashton's mind correctly, I'll add a tie-breaker: predict the score.
I first met Ashton shortly after deciding I wanted to coach, either in league or union, and sorted out meetings with respected men in both codes. Top of the tree in league was Wayne Bennett of Brisbane Broncos, probably the most successful coach of all time. I don't want to single out anyone in union, but when Sir Clive Woodward allowed me to sit in on some of Ashton's sessions one thing was immediately apparent - he obviously didn't mind taking risks.
As everyone knows, because the figures are trotted out so regularly, the Ashton way of total rugby produced some thrilling stuff. However, when he left, Woodward and England moved progressively to the narrower, tighter game which won them the World Cup a year later. Now Ashton has a free hand - or at least I hope he does because otherwise there is no point in putting him in charge - but not a lot of time.
Woodward took six years to produce the cup-winning side, the current favourites for 2007, New Zealand, had the framework in place before Graham Henry took over after the 2003 failure and for some of the Irish this will be their third World Cup. However, don't write England off or see the Ashton reign as a mere stop-gap while a squad is formed for 2011 or even further ahead, as some are already suggesting. He has nine months and 10 games and is not exactly starting from scratch.
Far from being tainted by it, Ashton will see the eight months he spent working with Andy Robinson as his learning period. He will have formed opinions about the quality of the men his predecessor selected and whether they are up to the new challenge.
The timetable is short, but the schedule of games has at least been kind. There are worse ways of kicking off than with home games against Scotland and Italy, so the sides Ashton puts out should tell us a lot about the way he wants to go. Will the coach I first met prevail or will the burdens of office temper his instincts?
It's fascinating, but whatever hap-pens, Ashton needs some luck, partic-ularly in getting and then keeping his players fit - something that Robinson found in desperately short supply.
Phil Vickery's return will have cheered the new man and the current form of James Simpson-Daniel and Mike Tindall potentially adds a bit of depth to the squad. If Matt Stevens plays again in January and Jonny Wilkinson's body holds together, things start to look brighter.
Add Steve Thompson, Ben Kay, Simon Shaw and Danny Grewcock at their best and Ashton has a solid base. He can then consider blending some of the newer faces into the mix rather than forcing the issue, as Robinson found necessary in his latter days.
In more settled circumstances Dan Ward-Smith, who is pulling up trees with Bristol, and Tom Rees might be worth a punt, Anthony Allen may not have been ready this autumn but is clearly a star in the making and I retain a sneaking regard for Tom Varndell. I have to when he keeps scoring hatfuls of tries against Wasps.
His talent reminds me of Martin Offiah and an incident in 1988 when the Great Britain selectors were picking 30 to tour Australia. Les Bettinson, the tour manager, demanded just one choice - Offiah. He had played only a handful of rugby league matches and his defence was rubbish, but look what happened.
shaun.edwards@theguardian.com
