The choice of James Simpson-Daniel to make his Test debut on the England right wing against New Zealand at Twickenham on Saturday would normally have dominated this morning's oval ball-shaped headlines but the International Rugby Board had other ideas in Dublin last night.
As Gloucester's 20-year-old celebrated his call-up, the board finally pronounced on the bizarre case of Steve Devine, the All Black scrum-half who represented Australia's sevens team in 1998. Contrary to expectations, Devine is being allowed to stay with the tour party, a case of divine intervention if ever there was one.
The 26-year-old Devine successfully claimed he was unaware he was sacrificing his chances of Test rugby for any other nation and has been reprieved because the board, conscious of several other cases around the world, has belatedly decreed that sevens should not be subject to the retrospective regulation they introduced in 2000 to stop players swapping allegiance. Anyone who has played sevens for another union in the past two years will not be so fortunate.
Simpson-Daniel was less concerned about Devine than his own new horizons yesterday. "It will probably sink in tonight when I am lying in bed and have a chance to think about it," he said. "Clive Woodward has confidence in me and I will . . . try not to let anyone down."
The days when Woodward could consult his erstwhile coaching assistant John Mitchell before big selection decisions are obviously gone, but the latter may thank his old colleague for selecting Simpson-Daniel, if only because Jonah Lomu will want to redeem himself after being embarrassed by the same elu sive opponent in May while playing for the Barbarians.
There are other elements of the starting line-up which will also fascinate the All Black camp. Richard Hill, winning his 50th cap, is undoubtedly playing better than any other flanker in Britain and Lewis Moody has proved his worth at Test level, but omitting Neil Back is a big call.
At 33, the Leicester flanker will hope Woodward is planning to rotate his starting line-up in the autumn Tests. Andy Gomarsall, edged out by Matt Dawson at scrum-half, is another in that category and, even though Danny Grewcock and Martin Johnson will start on Saturday, Ben Kay remains very much in the frame.
Woodward will explain his choice publicly today but his bench options were slightly affected by injury. Mike Catt, who has a strained hamstring, and Graham Rowntree, struggling with a thigh muscle problem, were unfit for selection and replaced at training yesterday by Dan Scarbrough and David Flatman.
Catt should be fit for consideration to face Australia on Saturday week but Rowntree is rated "unlikely" to play any part in the series, news that will interest Trevor Woodman.
His form at loose-head for Gloucester has already ensured a proud day for Cornish rugby which can now claim to have reared two-thirds of England's front-row. Woodman, 26, first met Phil Vickery when his Liskeard side played Bude in the Cornwall Schools cup final and the pair have since become firm friends and house-mates. The chance to share international success now beckons.
England: Robinson (Sale); Simpson-Daniel (Gloucester), Tindall (Bath), Greenwood (Harlequins), Cohen (Northampton); Wilkinson (Newcastle), Dawson (Northampton); Woodman (Gloucester), Thompson (Northampton), Vickery (Gloucester), Johnson (Leicester, capt), Grewcock (Bath), Moody (Leicester), Hill (Saracens), Dallaglio (Wasps). Replacements: Regan (Leeds), Leonard (Harlequins), Kay , Back , Healey, Stimpson (all Leicester), Johnston (Saracens).
