Leonard the ageless prop closes in on élite group

Closer, ever closer. Jason Leonard, the venerable Harlequins prop forward, will make his 98th appearance for England tomorrow when he squares up to a Wallaby front row for the eighth time in a Test career that continues to beggar belief. The last time the 34-year-old loose head exchanged pleasantries with the Australians, at Twickenham in 2000, he out-scrummaged Fletcher Dyson so comprehensively that the Queenslander was back in the dressing-room inside half an hour. A repeat performance will put Leonard in the frame for a 100th cap some time during the Six Nations.

As ever, one man's bonus is another man's bombshell. Trevor Woodman, the Gloucester prop who made a very decent fist of his first international start against New Zealand six days ago, is struggling with a minor neck problem – something to do with a trapped nerve, according to England insiders – and has been forced to withdraw. Leonard's absence from an awards ceremony in London on Wednesday night raised fears that he too had picked up an injury, but he has been confirmed as a starter, with the uncapped Robbie Morris of Northampton on the bench.

At the start of last season, there was no reason to suspect that Leonard would fail to reach three figures and join two of rugby's genuine greats, Philippe Sella of France and David Campese of Australia, in a club rather more exclusive than the ones he tends to frequent after a hard day's graft in the grunt-and-groan department. When he trundled on to the Lansdowne Road pitch for the Grand Slam game with Ireland, he had 92 in the bag and a full campaign ahead of him.

Unfortunately, that match in Dublin went seriously pear-shaped, and Leonard found himself among the replacements for the following fixture – a game against the Wallabies, ironically enough. He has started only one Test since, the 134-point slaughter of Romania almost exactly a year ago, but has managed five appearances off the bench, the last in Italy in April.

If England have been forced to tinker with their tight five, the corresponding Wallaby unit is virtually unrecognisable from the one that fired a fusillade of blanks against the Irish on Saturday. Indeed, only Patricio Noriega remains. Bill Young and Jeremy Paul have been drafted into the front row for Nick Stiles and Adam Freier, while the young Brumby Daniel Vickerman and the irrepressible Justin Harrison replace the injured Owen Finegan and the demoted David Giffin at lock. There are switches outside, too: Elton Flatley, a gifted if under-achieving individual, gets a run at inside centre, with Daniel Herbert shifting to the outside berth and Stirling Mortlock replacing Scott Staniforth on the left wing.

The argy-bargy over southern hemisphere "decoy" tactics, raised with the aid of video technology by the England manager Clive Woodward at the start of the week and bitterly resented by every Antipodean on earth, drew another classy one-liner from the Wallaby coach, Eddie Jones, yesterday. Asked whether he had discussed the issue with tomorrow's referee, Paul Honiss, he replied: "I haven't been able to get to him, so I guess he's still watching Clive's tape." If the tactical debate has been a little on the esoteric side, the humour has been top-notch.

On the club front, European Rugby Cup officials have fined Montferrand €50,000 (£31,000) for breaching commercial regulations in the Heineken Cup tournament. In the first case of its kind, a disciplinary panel under the chairmanship of the Scotsman Douglas Hunter found them guilty of displaying unsanctioned advertising at their Parc des Sports Marcel-Michelin venue during the match with Swansea last month. The panel suspended three-fifths of the fine for 18 months, but €20,000 plus costs is due now.

Northampton have reluctantly parted company with their former Springbok lock, Johan Ackermann, and signed the New Zealander Matt Lord, a 24-year-old Super 12 player from North Harbour, in his stead. Ackermann has been nursing a shoulder injury since the Powergen Cup final defeat by London Irish seven months ago, and despite extensive treatment, has shown few signs of returning to the field. He is likely to return to South Africa.

AUSTRALIA (v England, Twickenham, tomorrow): M Burke; W Sailor, D Herbert, E Flatley, S Mortlock; S Larkham, G Gregan (capt); B Young, J Paul, P Noriega, D Vickerman, J Harrison, M Cockbain, G Smith, T Kefu. Replacements: A Freier, B Darwin, D Giffin, C Whitaker, M Giteau, S Staniforth.