England Name their Team as Care Doubts Emerge

England Head Coach Stuart Lancaster unveiled his starting XV last night for the first Test against New Zealand at Eden Park; however, it has emerged that pivotal scrum-half Danny Care is now an injury doubt.

Care’s doubt is potentially a huge blow for England’s chances of upsetting the world champions, as the harlequin – who breathed a new lease of life into England’s attacking game – jarred his shoulder after suffering an accidental fall in training.

Care has been given until Thursday night to prove his fitness for the tour opener, with Ben Youngs waiting in the wings should he fail to recover.

It is another alarming development for England, whose preparations for the series opener in Auckland have been undermined by an ever-lengthening injury list.

Adding to Head Coach Stuart Lancaster's problems is the absence of any further scrum-half cover among the first wave of players who arrived in Auckland last week.

If Care is ruled out, a jet-lagged Lee Dickson will be picked on the bench just three days after landing in New Zealand and seven days after helping Northampton to the Aviva Premiership title.

"Danny is a concern and I'll give him until the captain's run on Friday," Lancaster said.

"At the moment we're hoping he'll be fine for the game, but it's meant I've had to put Lee Dickson on standby. It's not ideal but needs must."

Care's 47 international appearances make him the second most-capped player in the 23 picked to face New Zealand. Given the inexperience of Freddie Burns and Kyle Eastmond outside him, England can ill afford to lose a half-back of his quality.

It is Burns, who is Leicester-bound next season that has been picked to start at 10 ahead of Sale’s Danny Cipriani, despite enduring a poor season at Gloucester.

Furthermore, with the ankle injury suffered by another Gloucester man, Billy Twelvetrees, it is rugby league convert Kyle Eastmond who starts at inside centre with Manu at 13.

The young Bath mid-fielder impressed during last summer's tour to Argentina where he won both of his caps, but has fallen out of favour at Bath and has not played since April 27.

The 10-12 channel is the obvious weak link in the team as Eastmond and Burns are each fourth choice in their positions.

"We're going to be tested there, there's no doubt about it," Lancaster said.

"Kyle didn't get picked towards the end of the season but he was exceptional in Argentina and every time he's trained with us. We've seen huge potential in him.

"The partnership of him and Manu Tuilagi has looked promising in training. Freddie's been training well so as a midfield partnership, it's nicely balanced.

"It's still got that ball playing 12 that I prefer to have and someone to distribute and make good decisions and it's got the power runners as well.

"Clearly for us we need to give Kyle the licence to do what he does best and that's put people through holes, but also encourage him to take on players himself as he's a genuine running threat and a passing threat."

Unlike their back counterparts, there were really only two areas up for debate in the pack that have now been settled with Geoff Parling's line-out expertise seeing him start ahead of Dave Attwood and the physicality of James Haskell being preferred to Tom Johnson; although Rob Webber’s selection at hooker was questioned by many.

The starting XV contains seven survivors from the victory over Italy in March and a total of 299 caps, but there is a worrying lack of firepower on the bench.

Lancaster, however, insists it is a 23 capable of denying the All Blacks a 15th successive victory.

"It's certainly a big challenge we're facing, but there'll be no excuses because the side we've got is an experienced and good one," he said.

"I certainly think we need to earn the respect of the All Blacks, not just as a group of players but as a nation and that will only happen at the end of the third Test. This is an important start."

Captain Chris Robshaw also insisted that his England team have a fantastic opportunity to “defy the odds” and stun the world champions in Auckland.

 A heavy defeat has been scripted for Stuart Lancaster's 8/1 underdogs, as they line up without any players from Aviva Premiership finalists Northampton and Saracens.

With their playing resources substantially weakened, England must man the barricades at a venue where the All Blacks - who are chasing a 15th successive victory - have won every match they have contested for 20 years.

"The odds seem to be stacked against any team that comes to New Zealand, if you look at previous series over the years," said Robshaw, England's captain.

"But, in saying that, there's a huge opportunity for us, a huge opportunity for a team to go out there and defy those odds.

"A Test victory in New Zealand would probably rank as the number one achievement for us. In the whole of English rugby history it's been done twice.

"It's definitely, probably, going to be the hardest thing we've done. This is where we'll find out what we're about."

A 2-1 series defeat would be an acceptable outcome from the final tour before next year's World Cup, but Robshaw insists England's ambition must be higher.

"Our aim has to be to come here and win the series," he said.

"That said, it's easy for me to sit here behind a desk and say that, we've got to go out there on the pitch, we've got to go out there and prove ourselves.

"We need to make sure we get our details spot-on, both on and off the pitch, and most importantly we must execute under pressure in a Test environment that is one of the most hostile places to play rugby.

"This is the place and the team you want to test yourself against."

     

England team to face New Zealand at Eden Park, Auckland, on Saturday June 7, 0835 KO BST:

M Brown (Harlequins); M Yarde (Harlequins), M Tuilagi, (Leicester Tigers), K Eastmond (Bath), J May (Gloucester); Freddie Burns (Leicester Tigers), D Care (Harlequins); J Marler (Harlequins), R Webber (Bath), D Wilson (Bath), J Launchbury (London Wasps), G Parling (Leicester Tigers), J Haskell (Wasps), C Robshaw (Harlequins, capt), B Morgan (Gloucester).

Replacements: J Gray (Harlequins), M Mullan (London Wasps), H Thomas (Sale Sharks), D Attwood (Bath), T Johnson (Exeter Chiefs), B Youngs (Leicester Tigers), D Cipriani (Sale Sharks), C Pennell (Worcester).