ENGLAND's escalating injury toll has forced a major reshuffle, including a temporary change of captain, for tomorrow's international against Argentina at Twickenham.
Jason Leonard leads the side in place of Phil De Glanville, who withdrew with a thigh injury. Jeremy Guscott resumes his partnership with Will Carling at centre and Tony Underwood makes an international comeback on the left wing.
Doubts persist about the fitness of Mike Catt, whose chest injury could open the door for Alex King to win his first cap should the England fly half also be forced to drop out. Northampton's Paul Grayson has been placed on stand by, bringing the number of players attached to the squad to 24 since the start of the week.
Leonard's appointment to the captaincy should give De Glanville ample time to recover for the Calcutta Cup match against Scotland at Twickenham on February 1st. The 28 year old Harlequin prop who has 50 caps has been promoted from vice captain which was created for him by the coach, Jack Rowell, last month.
"I shall carry on with the playing side Phil started this season," promised Leonard, the first prop to lead England since Fran Cotton. "Everyone would dream about becoming England captain one day but you don't bank on it happening - it's a wonderful honour."
Rowell said Leonard had been closely involved in discussing playing issues. "I have never found Jason's opinions anything other than valuable," said Rowell. "Jason has made a lot of progress improving his fitness, he is captain of Harlequins, a big club, and as England vice captain he was the next man in line to step in."
Rowell side stepped the question of whether he would retain the old firm of Carling and Guscott in the New Year if they impressed their 44th international together. "Will has done immeasurably well as a player after eight years as captain and Jerry now has a chance to show off his wares," said the coach. Underwood, scorer of 10 tries in 20 internationals, will be relieved to return to the Test arena and finally put behind him his embarrassing World Cup performance against New Zealand 18 months ago. Indeed, England's back division arguably will be strengthened by the out and out pace of Underwood and Sleightholme on the wings and the restoration of the nation's most successful midfield partnership.
Leonard predicted the Argentina game would be a "hard, physical" confrontation. "Their forwards may not possess the technical expertise of New Zealand, but they definitely do have brute strength and raw aggression. I don't think any player wearing an Argentina shirt will want to be on the end of a 50 point defeat again (as happened in 1991)."
Said the Argentine captain, Lisandro Arbizu: "There have been big changes in Argentine rugby and we are developing a new style which we hope to show on Saturday. We have very powerful backs but we must demonstrate that against England."
He added that Argentina had scored seven tries in two Tests against France and three tries in two Tests against South Africa, as well as beating Canada for the first time with a record haul of five tries.
