Rich talent aiming to restore red rose army's cutting edge

James Simpson-Daniel is setting his sights on being the centre of attention on his return to England duty today. Chris Hewett reports

It is probably an over-simplification to describe England's back division as a vacuum with five broken noses, but not by much. True, the possession currently provided by Martin Corry's bulldog pack is slow to the point of static; agreed, both Australia and New Zealand indulged in every form of chicanery known to rugby-playing man on their most recent visits to Twickenham, generally with a view to interrupting whatever momentum the red rose army managed to generate. All things considered, though, the world champions' attacking game has been about as cutting edge as Stonehenge.

Step forward, James Simpson-Daniel - a twinkle-toed maestro who, on a good day, is capable of sending the Simpson half of himself running one way, the Daniel half the other and leaving his opponents tackling the hyphen. He has been the most inventive outside back in England for so long now that it is impossible not to be flabbergasted by the fact that he is still six months shy of his 24th birthday, but this is at least partially explained by the incandescent quality of his best work, which stays in the mind rather longer than usual.

Truly creative sorts are not always the most robust - Van Gogh was a proper shambles on the health front long before he set about his own ear - and there is no denying that Simpson-Daniel's professional career has been blighted by illness (glandular fever) and injury (every orthopaedic setback known to medicine). A lesser sportsman might have suffered some psychological trauma, too. Having forged a place for himself in the popular imagination by giving some character by the name of Lomu the run-around in a Barbarians fixture in 2002, he ran into the Big Bloke's most potent All Black successor, Joe Rokocoko, in Dunedin two years later and received an unpleasant taste of his own medicine.

He has not played for England since - "It was a bad game that one; I was absolutely gutted afterwards," he recalled this week - but to his considerable credit, the experience did not cramp his style. Quite the opposite. Injuries have prevented Simpson-Daniel turning out for Gloucester with the regularity he would have liked, but his occasional appearances at club level have rarely failed to send a few volts of something or other through the audience. They are not much interested in high art in the Kingsholm Shed - given the choice between a karaoke evening and a night at Covent Garden, the locals would unhesitatingly head for the pub - but they know stardust when they glimpse it. "Sinbad", as they call him, is smothered in the stuff.

And now he is back in the white shirt of his country, under firm instructions to play it his way. He is in a relatively unfamiliar position, too, having been selected at outside centre rather than wing. Simpson-Daniel made his senior representative debut for England A in the position two and a half years ago and must have made a contribution of sorts, given that his side beat the Scots by the fairly comfortable margin of 78-6. But until Andy Robinson, the national coach, persuaded his counterpart at Gloucester, Dean Ryan, to revisit the experiment last month, there was no obvious prospect of him appearing in the red rose midfield.

"I was picked in the centre when we played over in Bayonne in the European Challenge Cup last month, but as it pissed with rain, it wasn't much of a day for running rugby," he said. "Still, I've been able to get some games under my belt since and I've loved every minute of it. I struggled for the first couple of weeks in terms of balancing the decision-making aspects of the role - when to try the outside break, when to cut inside and draw in the blanket defence. But I'm getting there, I think. Do I want to play exclusively as a centre? I'm not sure. Flexibility is a big thing in rugby now, and if I can play wing as well I might stand a decent chance of being involved in the England XXII, if not the starting XV. But I have to say I'm enjoying the challenge of life in midfield, apart from our Premiership game at London Irish last weekend, when we were absolute rubbish."

Simpson-Daniel's pedigree as a play-making outside-half - he operated there throughout his stint at Sedbergh School and put boot to ball approximately once a season, such was the quality of his handling and distribution - might have made him an inside centre to die for. If he does not have much of a kicking game, neither did Will Greenwood, who helped win a World Cup for his country. But unlike the Antipodeans, who prefer to play the "five-eighth" system of two stand-offs with a master-blaster centre at No 13, England traditionally do things the other way round. Back in the 1980s, Paul Dodge smashed his way through the heavy traffic and left the fancy stuff to a loose-limbed maverick called Clive Woodward. During the '90s, Will Carling did the route-one business at No 12, leaving Jeremy Guscott to trip the light fantastic outside him. On the odd occasion he received a pass, that is.

Of late, though, England have played two heavy-duty ball-carriers in Mike Tindall and Jamie Noon: not so much light and shade as dark and darker. Simpson-Daniel is by no means certain he can match Noon's physicality - "Jamie hits so hard, and he's been taking the ball up with such strength," he admitted - but by the same yardstick, the Newcastle centre is not exactly world famous for the sophistication of his passing, the subtlety of his angles or his instinctive finishing. Whatever Noon brought to the midfield contest against Australia and New Zealand, his successor will bring something entirely different.

"Of course, I have to get my basics right before I start thinking about the rest of my game," Simpson-Daniel continued, "but I definitely want to try things. In a way, I feel I haven't done much in an England shirt since that game against Lomu. The match in Dunedin was an opportunity for me to make a name for myself, but it went wrong and I wasn't involved in the subsequent Tests. The experience didn't scare me exactly - not to the point of nightmares, at least - but I was pretty down in the dumps. All I wanted was another shot, and when one did come along a few months later I got injured again, which was typical. I'm not a great worrier, but you do dread it when someone like Mark Cueto steps in and takes his chance. It's important to make the most of it now, while I'm fit and well."

If he does make a bale or two of hay for himself this afternoon, there is a high probability of some serious Six Nations activity after Christmas. Simpson-Daniel is not the biggest by any manner of means - in the tale of the tape, his 5ft 11in and 12st 7lb do not stack up particularly well against the Tana Umagas and Lote Tuqiris of this world - but come the new year, only France will pose a physical threat comparable to those absorbed by the England midfield over the last couple of weekends. Assuming he puts a few metres on his kicking from hand - and he works on this aspect of his game after every training session - there is no reason why he should not beat the supremely enthusiastic but less cultured Noon to a starting place against Wales in early February.

First, though, there is the small matter of surviving trial by Samoa, which generally involves flicking the ball right and left while ducking head-high tackles from all points of the compass. The islanders no longer boast centres of the calibre of George Leaupepe or To'o Vaega, who lined up against England the last time they played at Twickenham a decade ago, but the current midfielders will be no pushovers. When the Pacific hordes are on their game, a centre takes his life in his hands every time he attempts to caress a pass into space. Simpson-Daniel is acutely aware of the danger, both physical and figurative, he faces today.

"Funny you should mention that," he said. "I was talking to Phil Vickery [his Gloucester colleague, who has been spared England duty on this occasion] about this game, and he suggested I take a picture of myself before kick-off and another at the end, just for the sake of comparison. He made me feel really good about things, the Cornish loser." All things being equal, Simpson-Daniel will feel genuinely good about himself come close of autumn play. He has been on the international scene since 2002, but has only seven caps to his name, two of them off the bench - the worst case of short-changing since Scrooge was in his pomp. Blessed with million-dollar skills, it is about time he cashed in a few chips on England's behalf.