Rugby Union: England blood three new caps

THREE new caps in one go is drastic surgery by recent England standards, but then next Saturday's match against Canada at Wembley is one of those occasions when they can afford to experiment. Why, the manager even admitted that John Olver would have played hooker even if Brian Moore had not been injured.

The selectors did it in similar circumstances when Mark Linnett and Andy Mullins were the props against Fiji in 1988. The fact that neither has added to that solitary cap shows that Ian Hunter, Tony Underwood and Victor Ubogu will be on trial as much when they are playing for England as they ever were before being selected.

Indeed, it is hard to imagine that all of them - and certainly not Ubogu - would have been pitched in as newcomers against South Africa when England return to Twickenham next month. By then Rory Underwood will be available for England again, leaving brother Tony and Hunter effectively competing for one wing vacancy, and Jeff Probyn, whom Ubogu has displaced, will be that much fitter.

The new caps announced yesterday while England were training in front of hundreds of spectators at the Rugby Football Union's Castlecroft youth facility in Wolverhampton, are an intriguing mixture. Underwood, 23, was born in Ipoh, Malaysia, and Ubogu, 28, in Lagos, Nigeria. Hunter, a 24-year-old Cumbrian who plays full-back for Northampton even though England have been trying to make a wing of him for two years, was brought up in New Zealand.

When Ubogu began his rugby career in the under-14s at West Buckland School, Devon, he was a wing. The following season he converted to full-back and then centre, and it was only when a prop was injured that he took a chance in the front row. His selection is a compliment to the way Bath have with players; before joining them as a recent Oxford Blue in 1988 he had drifted to no good purpose through spells with Richmond and Moseley.

It is also a considerable surprise that he has been preferred to the yeoman Probyn. 'It's a reward to Ubogu for the progress he has made over the last 18 months,' Geoff Cooke, the manager, said. 'He has improved his tight play considerably. He had a very good (England B) tour Down Under and we feel he has started this season a little bit better than Jeffrey.

'With the new laws we feel it's more important what a player is adding with the ball in his hands and around the field than in the relatively few scrums. We feel Victor can add something to the side with his ability to carry the ball forward into the heart of the Canadian side with power and pace.'

As for Hunter, he is content to make the best of a bad job until the necessary vacancy arises. 'I'd rather play on the wing than nowhere,' he said. His inclusion is the more remarkable since he was given no chance of being fit by now when he had a knee operation last month. Instead, he made his comeback - at full-back, of course - in Northampton's defeat of Bath on Saturday.

'Hunter has something to offer in international rugby. We can't find a place for him at full-back and we feel he has something to add as a wing,' Cooke said. 'We have to be convinced of his all-round ability as a full-back before we pick him as a full-back.'

By contrast with Hunter's inclusion rather than Nigel Heslop, Tony Underwood's has been as good as certain since his outstanding B tour in New Zealand. The real choice will be who plays on the right when Rory returns. The other issue to resolve was at blind-side flanker, where Dean Ryan was preferred to Tim Rodber, though the bench will have a notable absentee now that Richard Hill has made way for Steve Bates.

Cooke used the occasion to launch a diatribe against the Senior Clubs' Association for making his outside-half, Rob Andrew, serve a 120-day qualification period after rejoining Wasps from Toulouse. 'It's total nonsense, absolutely crazy,' the manager said. 'It doesn't seem to have any logic whatsoever and I shall be saying so to the people who are charged with making those decisions.'

ENGLAND (v Canada, Wembley, 17 October): J Webb (Bath); I Hunter (Northampton), J Guscott (Bath), W Carling (Harlequins, capt), T Underwood (Leicester); R Andrew (Wasps), D Morris (Orrell); J Leonard (Harlequins), J Olver (Northampton), V Ubogu (Bath), M Bayfield (Northampton), W Dooley (Preston Grasshoppers), D Ryan (Wasps), D Richards (Leicester), P Winterbottom (Harlequins). Replacements: P de Glanville, S Barnes (Bath), S Bates, J Probyn, K Dunn (Wasps), T Rodber (Northampton).