Johnson's England

Martin Johnson has announced his first England team for the test against the Pacific Islanders this weekend:

D Armitage (London Irish); P Sackey (Wasps), J Noon (Newcastle), R Flutey (Wasps), U Monye (Harlequins); D Cipriani (Wasps), D Care (Harlequins); A Sheridan (Sale Sharks), L Mears (Bath), M Stevens (Bath), S Borthwick (Saracens, captain), N Kennedy (London Irish), T Croft (Leicester), T Rees (Wasps), N Easter (Harlequins).

Replacements: D Hartley (Northampton), P Vickery (Wasps), T Palmer (Wasps), J Haskell (Wasps), M Lipman (Bath), H Ellis (Leicester), T Flood (Leicester).

I like the look of this team, and on paper it is one of the most exciting back lines England have ever selected. Johnson has picked some of the real in-form players from the Guinness Premiership (Armitage, Monye, Care, Kennedy, Croft) and dropped some of the 'old-guard' (Lewsey, Kay, Worsely).

The combination at 10-12 of Wasps team mates Cipriani and Flutey should add plenty of much needed creativity to the back line and will hopefully fire the speedy trio of Armitage, Sackey and Monye. I'm sure Brian Smith (the new England attack coach) had a huge influence over this selection.

Jamie Noon is perhaps the beneficiary of some injuries to other available centres, but should add some grunt and defensive stability at 13.

In the forwards, it is great to see London Irish's Nick Kennedy finally get his chance at this level. In recent years, Engand's line out hasn't functioned as smoothly as it should so the addition of the best line out winner in the country over the last 3 years should guarantee more far more possession from both their own and their opponents line out. Under the new ELVs, securing possession from set pieces has become even more important.

Lee Mears is the selection at hooker, although doubts must remain as to whether he is big enough at test level. For sure it will be interesting to see how Dylan Hartley performs in that role if he gets a run out as substitute. But with Mears, Stevens, Croft, Rees and Easter all selected in the pack is not short of pace and ball handling abilities. We have seen in the Tri-Nations and Heineken Cup this year the importance under the ELVs of the forwards being able to add continuity and pace in attack. The question mark will be whether this pack have the ability to compete strongly enough in the rucks and mauls to secure quick ball when in possession and to slow down and turnover the opposition's possession.

Without doubt, Martin Johnson has stamped his own vision on to this first selection under his new reign. This is the start of a new era for English rugby. Previous attempts under Andy Robinson and Brian Ashton since the World Cup victory in 2003 have proved to be false dawns. I suspect that this time, with Johnson at the helm, things it will be very different...

Wasps Sting

Interesting to read that Josh Lewsey felled his fellow team-mate Danny Cipriani with a right hook during training after the young fly-half didn't perform too well during tackling drills.

I've been a huge fan of Josh Lewsey (another ex Bristol University student) ever since he managed to do what very few players ever managed to do - to face up, tackle, and bring to ground Jonah Lomu during a test against NZ in the notorious 'tour from hell' in 1998 when he was just 21.   I never understood why it took so long for Josh to be picked for the full England side after this.

However, during the awful start Wasps have had to the season one of the most conspicuous under-performers has been Josh Lewsey.   I think he can count himself very lucky that no team-mate decided to deck him for every mistake he has made so far this season - several of which led to tries.  He needs to concentrate on his own performance before laying into others

But it is probably a bad sign for the other teams in the Guinness Premiership that training is so fierce and competitive right now at Wasps. This shows a certain pride in standards that may have been lacking so far this season.   Given the watchful eye of Shaun Edwards, perhaps the only surprise is that it has taken so long to come about....