Clive Woodward will today be forced into at least one change to his England team to face South Africa this Saturday after Gloucester's exciting young wing James Simpson-Daniel withdrew last night suffering from glandular fever.

The illness could scarcely have struck at a more inconvenient time for Simpson-Daniel, whose passing ability has created three tries in his two Tests to date. Woodward must now reassess his options on the right flank, where Austin Healey and Tim Stimpson of Leicester will come into the frame. It might have been an opportunity to blood the elusive Gloucester wing Marcel Garvey but the 19-year-old damaged ankle tissue at Leicester last Friday.

Woodward, seeking a third spectacular Twickenham win in successive weekends, has also received confirmation that another Kingsholm favourite, Trevor Woodman, will be sidelined until the new year. The loose-head prop, who has had previous problems with a disc pressing against a nerve in his neck, suffered a recurrence in training prior to the 32-31 victory over Australia and has been told by specialists he will be out of action for up to two months.

Jason Leonard can therefore expect to win his 99th England cap but the continued hamstring problems affecting Mike Catt have ended any chance of an immediate Test return for the Bath fly-half.

"I watched the Scotland game and South Africa were not at their best," Woodward said yesterday. "They may have had an eye on playing England at Twickenham but I will certainly be selecting our strongest team to play against the Springboks."

New Zealand's attempt to have three French players brought to account for alleged acts of foul play during last Saturday's international in Paris foundered last night when the citing commissioner ruled there was insufficient evidence for disciplinary action.

The All Blacks asked the commissioner, Scotland's Bill Dunlop, to view the video of the match after claiming the flanker Olivier Magne had grabbed the testicles of Jonah Lomu, the second-row Fabien Pelous had gouged Marty Holah, and an unnamed forward had stamped on the New Zealand captain Taine Randell.

Dunlop told the New Zealand management that after viewing the tape he did not believe there was enough evidence in any of the cases for him to convene a disciplinary hearing.

"We are disappointed," said Randell. "We felt there was something there on the tape, particularly in regard to the incident concerning Jonah, but the citing commissioner decided otherwise and we have to accept his ruling."

New Zealand end their tour of Europe on Saturday against Wales in Cardiff. They name their side today and are likely to include the remaining five players in the squad who have still to win their first caps: the forwards Tony Woodcock, Kevin Mealamu, Daniel Braid and Rodney So'oialo and the centre Regan King, all of whom are 23 or under.

The fly-half Carlos Spencer will play no further part after injuring his shoulder against England and he will fly home tomorrow. Lomu trained yesterday with a heavily strapped thigh but is expected to be fit.

The match will be the first 73,000 sell-out for an autumn international at the Millennium Stadium. Even though the roof has been closed for this month's internationals the pitch is threadbare and will be taken up in the new year before the start of the Six Nations Championship.

Ireland have recalled Girvan Dempsey, Keith Gleeson, Victor Costello and Gary Longwell to the squad for Saturday's match against Argentina. Kieron Dawson, Mick O'Driscoll, Eric Miller and Gordon D'Arcy step down.