Rugby World Cup: Red rose ready for thrilling campaign

"JUDGE ME on the World Cup," pleaded Clive Woodward on succeeding Jack Rowell as head cook and bottle washer almost exactly two years ago. He is certain to have his way. The members of a heavily populated jury - former international players, ex-England coaches, Rugby Football Union blazers, Fleet Street know-alls and the great unwashed - will consider the mass of available evidence in the light of proceedings over the next five weeks and, in the event of a red rose misfire, send the defendant to the gallows. Woodward has staked his reputation on one turn of the wheel. The little metal ball is about to start spinning.

A high risk strategy? Sure, but Woodward has always been a gambler. He backs his instincts, indulges his hunches, flies wherever his fancy takes him. England will hit previously unimagined heights in this competition. He feels it in his water. And anyway, how else are we to judge him? In time-honoured English fashion, he has promised much but delivered Sweet Felicity Arkwright. Not even a Five Nations title. A single, albeit momentous, victory over Gary Teichmann's Springboks remains the only cause for unbridled celebration amid a raft of close calls and a rash of disappointments.

Yet who will say the coach has spent the last 24 months of his life trudging up the wrong road? This is a red rose side the like of which we have not seen before, for there is nothing stodgy or limited or mechanical about Woodward's England. They play a bit of football, this lot. They are flexible and versatile, proactive rather than reactive. Austin Healey spends more time off his allotted wing in the course of a single 80-minute Test than Rory Underwood managed in a dozen years. Richard Hill and Lawrence Dallaglio can cut the mustard in all three back-row positions. Roger Uttley or Mick Skinner would sooner have appeared on Alan Partridge's show than on the open-side flank.

With the grace of God and a following wind, England can certainly become the first northern hemisphere side to pocket the ultimate prize. Phil Vickery's return to the front row brings a no-nonsense rustic authority to the set-piece, the line-out jumpers are a match for anyone, and the back row is better, far better, than most. There is imagination in the centre, pace on the wings and iron defence at full-back. The half-backs, Matt Dawson and Jonny Wilkinson, still need to run the game rather than let it run them, but they will fight to the bitter end. Wilkinson will kick his goals, too. He has a set of golf clubs in his left boot and a half-set in his right.

In addition, England play the lion's share of the competition on their own beautifully manicured mudheap. Italy have never come close to winning at Twickenham and the All Blacks hate the place like poison. If they can survive a last-eight scrap in Edinburgh or Paris, Woodward and company will be back at HQ for the semis. This may be a Welsh tournament, but it might have been designed for those white-shirted swine on the wrong side of the Severn.

A decent bet for the last four, then? Definitely. Only injuries will bring them up short. Unlike the Wallabies, for instance, England have no real cover for their front rankers. Dallaglio and Martin Johnson are indispensible and Hill is not far behind them in terms of importance. Kyran Bracken having failed to make it, Dawson also falls into the "must play" category. How ironic that a country boasting the only six-figure playing population in world rugby should be so entirely dependent on the fitness of 15 individuals.

ENGLAND

Coach: Clive Woodward

Captain: Martin Johnson

World Cup record: 1987 - Quarter-finalists;

1991 - Runners-up;

1995 - 4th

How they qualified: Winners of European Pool 2

Registered adult players: 251,000

Nick Beal (Northampton)

Matt Perry (Bath)

Leon Lloyd (Leicester)

Dan Luger (Saracens)

Austin Healey (Leicester)

Jeremy Guscott (Bath)

Will Greenwood (Leicester)

Mike Catt (Bath)

Phil de Glanville (Bath)

Jonny Wilkinson (Newcastle)

Paul Grayson (Northampton)

Matt Dawson (Northampton)

Martyn Wood (Wasps)

Jason Leonard (Harlequins)

Graham Rowntree (Leicester)

Victor Ubogu (Bath)

Darren Garforth (Leicester)

Phil Vickery (Gloucester)

Trevor Woodman (Gloucester)

Will Green (Wasps)

Richard Cockerill (Leicester)

Phil Greening (Sale)

Neil McCarthy (Gloucester)

Martin Johnson (Leicester, capt)

Tim Rodber (Northampton)

Danny Grewcock (Saracens)

Garath Archer (Bristol)

Richard Hill (Saracens)

Neil Back (Leicester)

Ben Clarke (Bath)

Joe Worsley (Wasps)

Lawrence Dallaglio (Wasps)

Martin Corry (Leicester)

Key player

RICHARD HILL (Blind-side flanker)

If Neil Back and Lawrence Dallaglio are the heroic tenors of the red rose opera, Richard Hill is the rich baritone who holds the production together. As multi-skilled as either - Hill is a natural open-side flanker, too, who, as a sixth-former, turned in a legendary performance at No 8 in a national schools final at Twickenham - he allows the others to play through sheer selflessness. There is just one word to describe him and his play. Superb.