Lydon lined up for backs role as England contemplate changes

Six years ago, England travelled to the Southern Hemisphere with a squad so unfamiliar that even the coaches failed to recognise them. Unsurprisingly, they lost all seven matches, most of them by record margins. This summer, when the shop-soiled world champions head off to the Antipodes for another set-to with the All Black and Wallaby communities, new faces will be two-a-penny once again, both among the playing party and the back-room staff. Clive Woodward insists it will be different this time.

Woodward believes his senior players will travel en bloc, but intends to take at least three uncapped players - the Leeds scrum-half Clive Stuart-Smith, the Sale hooker Andy Titterrell and the Bath prop Matt Stevens - along with a new coach in Joe Lydon, the former rugby league international who is nearing the end of a highly productive stint with England's seven-a-side team. Lydon will become a fully-fledged member of the Test set-up, effectively assuming the role vacated by Brian Ashton midway through the 2002 Six Nations' Championship.

England failed to win that tournament, as they failed to win this year's following their 24-21 defeat at the Stade de France on Saturday night. Woodward reacted to this latest setback in his usual forward-thinking way: "I'm very clear why we win matches and equally clear why we lose them," he said yesterday, adding that England would "certainly move forward in the coming months". He bases his opinion on an agreement with the Premiership clubs over release dates for international training covering the period up to and including the 2007 World Cup, which he is convinced will underpin a new era of red rose progress.

Along with the existing coaching staff - Andy Robinson, Phil Larder, Dave Alred and Dave Reddin - Lydon will play a prominent role in England's attempt to defend the Webb Ellis Trophy in France three and a half years hence, a feat never before accomplished. "Joe has a big contribution to make," Woodward said. "He's a quality operator who can give us a fresh slant on things. He will spend a good deal of time with the backs, although it is too simplistic to compartmentalise what we do as coaches, and his input will be extremely valuable to us."

The head coach also talked up the role of Lawrence Dallaglio, whose win-loss ratio since succeeding the phenomenally successful Martin Johnson as England captain is not quite as he would have wished. "Lawrence knows what he's about," Woodward argued. "You need an experienced player at the helm during a period of change, and he's doing a fantastic job. He spoke brilliantly at half-time during the France match, and again after we'd been beaten. He will lead the side this summer."

By losing two of their five tournament matches and finishing behind both France and Ireland, England have delivered their worst championship performance of the professional era. Woodward hinted yesterday that changes were on the cards, both in terms of personnel and in his own modus operandi. "Now we have our release agreement with the clubs, I can map out the next couple of years in detail. For the players, it's always about winning the next match; for me, it's about planning, about getting the hundreds of little things absolutely right. It's been a long campaign, and it won't finish until we return from Australia in June, but I'm not jaded in the least. If anything, my appetite has been whetted by our disappointments over the last few weeks."

Appointed in the autumn of 1997, Woodward has been in the front line for an unusually long stretch. Life is not about to get easier; once he has completed his England duties next season, he will concentrate on his other job - the coaching of the 2005 Lions in New Zealand. He is satisfied that he will keep both balls in the air for as long as necessary - "There is no question whatsoever of my being distracted from my work with England," he said - and has every intention of seeing out his long-term contract at Twickenham, which takes him to the end of the 2007 World Cup.

His enemies, once legion but far fewer in number as a result of the triumph in Australia last November, might be tempted to reach for their knives when they see the final championship table in cold print, for this is the first time England have found themselves out of the top two since 1993. The edges will be blunt, though. Those who crave Woodward's head will not get it this year - or next year, either.