Australia look to Flatley for ammunition supply

John Eales, pound for pound the finest player of his generation and a new-age athlete who helped radicalise this most conservative of games, will view this afternoon's Twickenham proceedings from a swanky seat near, or even in, the committee box. And that, to a very large extent, is the most pressing problem faced by the Wallabies as they seek a first victory in London since 1998. Dressed in the green and gold, with a bandage wrapped around his forehead, Eales was a mighty influence on the Australian team. Dressed in shirt and tie, he is no influence at all.

Eddie Jones, the razor-sharp wordsmith who coaches the reigning world champions, is not a man given to acknowledging frailty of any description: he could have spent a month with the Spanish Inquisition and not confessed a thing. But this week, he went at least some of the way towards accepting that Eales, who retired after captaining the Wallabies to the 2001 Tri-Nations title, had yet to be adequately replaced, either as a lock or as a guiding light.

"I think we're getting there, slowly: the natural leaders are beginning to emerge from the group we've put together and all the players are learning to take responsibility for themselves," said Jones. "But when you have been able to rely for so long on such a great rugby player – and Eales was a genuinely great figure on the world stage – it is bound to take time to adjust to his departure."

The Wallaby management have been tinkering with their engine-room combination for the best part of 15 months now, and they are tinkering still. Today, the 23-year-old Super 12 rookie Daniel Vickerman will partner Justin Harrison, who famously gave as good as he got from Austin Healey during last year's Lions series, and on the face of it, they have a winning combination of long-limbed athleticism and can-do attitude. But England have Martin Johnson, who means as much to the red rose army as Eales meant to the whole of Australia. Unless a real titan emerges from the tourists' forward ranks this afternoon, they will find themselves on the back foot in a decisive area of the contest.

Not that England, half- basking in the glow of a rare victory over New Zealand but still fretting over their failure to deal with the threat posed by the All Black back division, are remotely dismissive of this latest Wallaby vintage.

"To my mind, this is the strongest Australian team to visit Twickenham in three years, and if we do not play well, they'll beat us," said Clive Woodward, the England manager. "They have the meanest defence in the game – brilliantly coached, superbly organised – and while we will be looking to score tries, it is not a perfect world."

Woodward might well ponder England's lamentable strike rate against these opponents in the five years since he took charge. The Wallabies have scored 20 tries to England's four over the last six meetings, and while 11 of Australia's five-pointers were accumulated in the 76-0 slaughter at Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium in the summer of 1998, there can be little doubt that they have long possessed the more potent back-line. Many of the usual suspects are on display again this afternoon: Matthew Burke, Daniel Herbert, Steve Larkham and George Gregan among them.

But in many ways, the key figure for Australia will be Elton Flatley, who, as a 20-year-old, made his Test debut against England at Twickenham in 1997 – Woodward's first outing as a Test coach. Flatley fancied himself as an outside-half back then, and still does. But Larkham's unusually subtle attacking skills have left the Queenslander staring at a door slammed shut, hence his presence at inside centre today. His prime task will be to make the ball do more of the work, and to furnish Stirling Mortlock and Wendell Sailor with some runnable possession.

Sick of the sight of out-sized, route-one wings following Jonah Lomu's two-try contribution to last weekend's enthralling Twickenham showpiece, England must be wary of Sailor. If Lomu is significantly larger than the recently-anointed Wallaby – he is, after all, significantly larger than everyone – Sailor can not be dismissed as small potatoes. Anything but. A former rugby league international of repute, he has yet to play 20 serious games of union. It would be just like an Australian to introduce himself to a wider public by scoring a couple today.

Ben Tune and Owen Finegan, two Wallaby first-choices, are back home injured, and the increasingly impressive Mat Rogers is also on the casualty slab. But this is a strong Wallaby line-up, carefully selected with England in mind.

Woodward will expect a victory, and is fully justified in that expectation. It will not be achieved easily, though.