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Great article but no-one in the England team has ever called Sheridan Big Ted. The media made up the name and keep reporting it but its a myth.

Good old Sheri.... I have to say, no matter whether he puts in under-par performances against other opposition for the rest of his career, as long as he keeps the Aussies at bay, I'll be a fan.

That's a canny move from Johnno to start Vickery in place of Stevens. Come the hour-mark, the impact from the subs' bench will finish the Aussies off.

(PS: Swift editing work with the deliberate mistake on paragraph 8, Fordyce...)

Does anyone remember Sheridan playing back-row against a South African midweek team during an England tour some years ago? His carrying was magnificent: we're hoping for more of the same over next three weeks!

I remember him on that SAf Tour. He was awesome. Remember seeing a picture in the back of the Telegraph with 5 South African players trying to bring him down. It isn't often props are visible in the game to the average punter unless you know your front row skills, or even turn a game.

Calling him Big Ted is not a myth, it's just the name he got at Sale when Jim Mallinder's kid thought his dad was recruiting (a slightly bigger version of) Teddy Sheringham?

Surely he is allowed to keep the same nickname when he then makes it in to the England set up?

Awesome player when at his best though. We could do with him back at Edgeley in his Aussie-beating form.

Why are the media being so cocky about an England walkover on Saturday? Personally I think it's a schoolboy error; Australia are always incredibly hard to beat.

All I'm reading is 'Bid Ted's gonna help England hammer the Aussies.' When have we ever hammered the Aussies? Does no one remember what actually happened in the world cup QF? Yes we pushed them off the scrum but they were constantly battering us out wide and it was a desperate struggle to defend and in the end we won because Mortlock missed his kick, not because Sheridan was swinging Aussie props around his head for fun.

I hope we do dominate and beat them on Saturday, but to treat it like a forgone conclusion is extremely foolish.

I remember the QF in Marseille very well as I was there. Maybe I had the rose-tinted specs on, but as I remember it England squandered a number of opportunities (Catt should have been in under the posts, 3 - 1 overlap wasted twice....), and the 12-10 scoreline was very flattering to Australia. The general consensus after the game seemed to be that if the last minute penalty had gone over, it would have been a travesty.

Perhaps you're right, I still think we need to be careful about proclaiming a floor-wiping though.

You're quite right faceplanter.

The reason England won that game was because of their aggression, impact and physicality around the tackle area. The English rucked the Aussies off the park that day and should have won by more.

Sheirdan and the front five contributed in the tight, but really it was the back row who won the game, outperforming the world-class aussie back-row of Smith, Waugh and Palu.

To put it down to one missed kick (and probably a 30%er at that) is ridiculous.

Having said that about the QF, I completely agree with you about this Saturday. The fact that we had a lot of slow ball last week, and gave away quite a few penalties for holding on, is a big area of concern heading into this week. We will need to be much better at the breakdown (quick, aggressive and ruthless, whilst at all times remaining on our feet !!) otherwise our new wonder backs will not be getting much opportunity to show what they've got.

Definitely does it against Australia - not as consistent against other nations which perhaps reflects Australia's 'past?' scrummaging weaknesses rather than Sheridan's supposed dominance. Didn't the England scrum go backwards for most of the game against NZ last year. Clearly, potentially one of the best but not yet great!

Have to chip in my bit about the QF not being down to a missed kick. I had actually moved over to brisbane a week before the game because of my aussie girfriend and was getting awful flack from her family/associates in the build up. After the 1st 10 minutes, when the ref realised it was the aussie's who couldn't fight there end, we dominated to the point where the friends/family i was watching it with were bemoaning the current crop of green n gold forwards.

If an Australian feels the team should have won he will protest til he's blue in the face that they were robbed, if they know they were truly beaten the will bemoan they current crop as not living up to its predecessors great heights.

To a man they were doing the latter, what does this tell you.

As for that penalty it was definatly less than 50%, and do we forget the fact that the Aus scrum was dominated to the extent that even the veteran Greagan was making the most basic handling errors? That Mike Catt could/sould have scrored at least one try? and less we not forget Paul Sackeys incredible smother tackle when the Aussies had 2 men over on their left flank, epitomizing the guts and determination shown all game by the England team as a whole.

I was in Brisbane during that QF game. Boy did it go quiet. All you could hear was the sound of sobbing, tears dripping into tastless beer and the dark mumblings about introducing new "uncontested scrummaging" rules.

Was trying to make a point about over-hyping this weekend more than anything but nevermind.

I'm really looking forward to the game on Saturday, I hope that we carry on with the momentum of the win at the weekend. It was a good start for Martin Johnson, and I think there were a lot of positives for him.

I'm not sure we will 'hammer' the aussies this weekend, well not in terms of the final scoreline, but i'm sure all of the guys will be fired up and ready for another physical encounter. If we can come out on top in the scrum, breakdown and lineouts then we should get the result we want.

'Big Ted' will be one to watch, lets hope that he can come up with the goods once more against the Aussies. It will also be very interesting to see how Danny Cipriani performs in what will effectively be his first 'big' test match, personally i don't think he will be fazed.

C'mon England!

Tom,
i met Phil once and he seems like a modern man. I'm sure he does eat girls kebabs - i know this is juvenile but think of the connotations of what you say!

It will be interesting to see him against an inexperienced world cup winning captain in the form of John Smit.
It might just bring JS back to earth a bit

Get over it England, you didn't win the World Cup in 2007 and that's what counts. I like Martin Johnson but he is a poor man's John Eales and you know it. Good luck on saturday

Artwickers, exactly, that's what the joke was...

13,

I'll take my 'tasteless' (cold) beers and sunshine over your warm beers (served in plastic pints because of thuggery) and rain anyday!

Regarding the 2007 QF, I think that it's absolutely ridiculous to claim that the scoreline flattered Oz. As someone else suggest (but to support the argument funnily enough) Gregan was making an outrageous number of handling errors, and no, MOST of these were not forced by the scrum. Also, Tuqiri bungled a huge overlap, although made up for it later with a try. As for the last penalty, whether it was 1% or 100% doesn't make a difference, it could have been kicked.

As for the game on saturday. I have said for a while that England will be Australias toughest game of the AIs. The poms always seem to step of their game against us. I think Smith will play a key role and mortlock/cross/gituea will be punching holes through the 10/11/12 channels, targetting the 'infamous' cips. If we get enough ball, Oz to win by a try. If the poms starve us of possession, England by the famous '3'.

notachucker,

I really wouldn't. Give me a real ale over that mass produced guff any day.

If I want it cold I can quite easily leave it in the fridge for a while.

Anyway... back to the Rugby. If you think England are still going for the pugilists approach then think again. If our back three can get decent ball then you may struggle.

Australia are a completely different level to the Pacific Islanders but pace is pace whoever it's against.

I can't see you getting much change in the forwards, front row battle will be England's with ease and as for the back row battle, well I reckon Tom Rees will be able to show your boys a thing or two after more than holding his own against a certain Richie McCaw in an earlier test series.

I wonder if the referee on Saturday will stop the mighty Sheridan scrummaging with his hand on the floor?

He got called for it once last weekend but has got away with it too often in the past.

If the man mountain Tackleberry-a-like is made to play by the laws we'll see how good he really is.

Sheridan is going to be fired up for saturday, alot depends on the ref, if australia cannot get under his skin ,then england will win by some margin, if the ozzies do scrum well and hold their own it will make things very close. With the new ELV's, scrums are much more attacking now, and we are having less lineouts which is good.

Johnson is widely regarded by players past and present as being one of the greatest players ever to play the game,certainly in the pro era. Not a poor man's John Eales, just a hard and uncompromising character who intimidated the opposition. I wish Jonno good luck with saturday's clash!

Swing Low Sweet Chariot!

Most people do not seem to be really aware that young Sheridan was first taken on an England "A" tour to North America as a general utility back five ( well OK four) player, who could always be asked to prop if need be.

Philip St. Andre at Sale decided that he had the potential to be a World class loose-head prop and signed him. So the bad news for the opposition is that basically Sheridan has been on a steep learning curve, with his progress punctuated by a whole sequence of injuries; probably in part due to the consequence of initially depending more on sheer brute strength rather than technique. When he eventually marries the two together, the rest of the World will really have to worry.

hall_mackem,

Going to take your pint home and put it in the fridge? That's an odd concept.

You have obviously never had any decent beers from Oz, I assure you there are some good ones. Also, I'm sorry to inform you, if you have never heard it before, but Englands 'ale' is on par with your food as far as taste is concerned.

Pace IS pace, but pace is also nothing without engineering gaps to run through, something that surely even you can admit, Australia is much better at.

I wouldn't believe everything you read in the times about the oz scrum. I think you might be in for a bit of a shock.

As for Rees, you are a fool if you think that he is good enough to match Smith. In fact, eddie mcguire recently said he thought Smith is better than Mccaw, can't say I agree with him but quite a compliment still.

To the ´óÏó´«Ã½ thanks for bigging up Big Ted - reality is he underperformed today and isn't the scrum genius all the English press thought in fact the Aussie scrum probably come out even maybe ahead. Twickenham looks great now but the crowd is the most ignorant rugby crowd I have seen - Cardiff Arms Park is a real crowd and a real stadium - it's where John Eales won his second World cup (in the professional era...)

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Another brilliant piece of unbiased journalism from!

Hope you feel silly :):):)

Good luck England v SA - just remember every time you play SA or Aus your playing a double world champion...not just 66 and all that