Vickery set to start

Phil Vickery was today rewarded for his storming comeback against the All Blacks with a starting place in an England team which stands on the verge of making history here in Melbourne.

Vickery and fellow Gloucester prop Trevor Woodman will give Clive Woodward's side a fresh look in the front row but the coach has otherwise asked the heroes who downed New Zealand to now become the first England team to beat the Wallabies in Australia.

Such was Vickery's barnstorming second-half contribution to England's historic 15-13 win in Wellington, when he replaced the injured Jason Leonard, that Woodward has entrusted him with his first Test start since the autumn triumphs over New Zealand, Australia and South Africa at Twickenham.

Vickery replaces Leonard, who is relegated to the bench, while 26-year-old Woodman, who like Vickery has struggled with injury problems this season, has forced his way back into the side at the expense of Graham Rowntree.

After the exertions of Saturday's epic match, the introduction of the two younger props had always been in Woodward's mind.

Today's announcement here caps a remarkably rapid and resilient return to pre-eminence for 27-yearold Vickery who admitted that he had not even expected to make the tour after suffering a back injury which sidelined him during the Six Nations campaign and forced him to undergo surgery.

When he captained the shadow squad which downed the Maori in New Plymouth last week, it was only his third start back after recovering from the operation, yet after proving an inspirat ional leader during that slog in the rain and then making so many dents in the All Blacks rearguard, Vickery is confident he is approaching full fitness.

"When you go under the surgeon's knife, you never know if you're going to make a full recovery but the doctors are happy and I feel I am on the road back," he said.

Vickery, one of the survivors from the 'Tour of Hell' here in 1998 when a third-rate England side got pulverised 76-0 by the Wallabies in Brisbane, their heaviest-ever defeat, is now sensing the opportunityto erase the wretched memoriesby helping guide his country to their first-ever Test win on Australian soil in 11 attempts.

Woodward has kept faith with Kyran Bracken, even though his No1 scrum-half Matt Dawson is fit again. The Northampton man has to settle for a place on the replacements' bench, which has a different look to the one at Wellington.

Mark Regan has been named the replacement hooker in place of Dorian West, while Wasps' Alex King, r at her than Paul Grayson, will be Jonny Wi l k i n s on' s understudy.

Meanwh i le, the Australians are preparing to name their team tomorrow, with Nathan Grey now looking odds-on to be the one asked to solve their fly-half crisis.

Already denied the services of eight important players through injury, coach Eddie Jones has

made life even more difficult for himself by ruling out Elton Flatley for failing to turn up to Sunday ' s team meeting after oversleeping following a late night out with friends.

With Stephen Larkham and Matt Giteau both injured, he now has to make the choice between winger Joe Roff and centre Grey.

Roff hasn't played in the position since he was at school and, watching the Aussies' training drills here, it appears likely that Jones has already decided Waratahs' Grey will take on the job of outplaying Wilkinson.

It will be an unenviable task for the 28-year-old whose only experience of wearing the No10 jersey at international level came at Twickenham three years ago when he came on as a second-half replacement in the Wallabies' 22-19 defeat.

Jones was taking his team to the Telstra Dome arena today for a close look at the controversial pitch which has been roundly criticised by Australian Rules football clubs as being potentially dangerous to players. There have been claims that the surface is hard, uneven, shifts under foot and was responsible recently for ankle injuries to three AFL players.

While AFL officials have consistently denied that players have a problem with the pitch, the stadium's head groundsman still resigned yesterday in the face of all the criticism. But coach Jones just shrugged here: "I've heard it's hard and fast. It might not be right for AFL, but it sounds just right for rugby and we're looking forward to playing on it."

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