Stage set for Sinbad - Harrison

Miles Harrison is looking forwards to James Simpson-Daniel starting for England.

England v Samoa
Test match
Saturday, November 26
Live on Sky Sports 2, 2pm

Even had England beaten the All Blacks last weekend, we would have seen changes for the final autumn Test against Samoa.

Andy Robinson has settled on five new faces as he looks for options and combinations as part of the building process for 2007. He must find a solution to the failure to score tries against New Zealand.

Before going into depth about those changes though it is important to make the point that England will show Samoa no disrespect. Samoa came close to beating Scotland at the weekend and England will remember how close they came to causing them embarrassment in the last World Cup.

England will not take Samoa lightly - there is nothing light about their play. They are a big strong side who will put themselves about and will see this as a great day at Twickenham and a chance of a great win.

That said, England must expect to win and win well, showing some style and creativity. Let's not forget Australia put 74 points on Samoa in the summer.

The most interesting change is the inclusion of James Simpson-Daniel in the centre. The pressure to create scoring opportunities will be heaped upon him, as we all remember what he is capable of from his appearance opposite the Barbarians and Jonah Lomu and in the autumn internationals of 2002. I am desperate to see him stay fit and get a run at international level. He is one of those players who has something special.

Another player like that, called up to the bench this week, is Leicester's 20-year-old winger Tom Varndell. I first saw him at the Middlesex Sevens a couple of years ago when Tigers' coaches Dusty Hare and Andy Key told me to look out for him.

Leicester didn't do so well that day but I watched him closely and he did some things that made me think he will one day make people sit up and take note. He went on to do that in the Premiership last season and this season he has continued to mature. I think it is right not to throw him right into this game but hopefully we will see him from the bench and his development can continue.

He won't start because another exciting player gets the nod ahead of him, Tom Voyce from Wasps. He is another player I enjoy watching on commentary duty. Ben Cohen has his appetite back but is one to pay the price for England's failures a week ago. Varndell, Simpson-Daniel and Voyce are the kind of players that could well seize their chance.

In the centre, Mike Tindall is a wonderful defender. He offers so much in that respect and there is clearly something about him that players like in the way that he leads by example. But his club colleague Simpson-Daniel offers a contrast to Tindall which perhaps Jamie Noon did not. Anyone who watches Newcastle in the Premiership knows that Noon is more than 'crash and bash' - what we are seeing here is competition for places and something different from the centre combination. Noon is part of the England squad but Simpson-Daniel gets his chance to impress this weekend and he may just have the artful touches that were lacking when Tindall and Noon were together.

In the forwards, Louis Deacon, James Forrester and Matt Stevens are other examples of young players that the fans will be keen to see. Leicester have been making Deacon's case for a while and it will be interesting to judge him at this level. He looks ready.

We also need to see Matt Stevens start. He has come off the bench a lot in his career and operating with Andrew Sheridan and Steve Thompson should give Stevens the chance to shine. Gloucester No.8 Forrester is another exciting talent from the Premiership and I am a big fan of his; he has a little bit of the X-factor that England need. He is on the bench and I am sure we will see him too.

If there is one other player who is not quite part of the England set-up yet but who is maybe a forward version of Varndell and will be fast-tracked into the set-up, I feel that it is the Wasps flanker, Tom Rees. There have been moments already in his young career when he has looked the part. He will soon be looking to put pressure on the incumbent back row of Martin Corry, Lewis Moody and Pat Sanderson who came to the fore last week.

On the Samoan side of things, weeks like this one bring to the fore certain issues in the game, and we all have to understand where we are at. There is an obligation for rugby fans to understand the situation that Samoa are in.

At last they are getting some funding for a Centre of Excellence back in Samoa where they can develop their own talent on their own soil rather than just away in foreign leagues - but apart from that they are basically broke.

With assistance from sponsors and playing a midweek game against Harlequins that they didn't really need in the build-up to a Test match, they have managed to make this trip viable. Now, it is up to the rugby community and the IB to be creative and inventive about how they help Samoa.

The IB can help by looking at the rules that hinder the likes of Samoa at the moment. For example, players that have played for tier one nations, such as New Zealand, could be allowed to go back and play for a country like Samoa or Tonga, if they are no longer required at the higher level. This should only work one way by the way! Likewise, players who represented a top-tier nation at Sevens should not be excluded from playing 15-a-side elsewhere.
On this tour Samoa have benefited from a good release of players but they should be helped all the time by a total release of players.

The game will benefit from Samoa, Fiji, Romania and other countries being more competitive when it comes to the World Cup, rather than having only four or five countries that can realistically win and a competition that only gets interesting at the quarter or semi-final stage.

PREDICTION - England end year on a high

I think England will win and I am hopeful that they will do so with the sort of rugby that we all want to see them play. The crowd might need to be patient and allow that rugby to develop through the match but, so far, even without the South Stand, they have been excellent. If it clicks in the first five minutes, no one will complain but I think it may take time. Samoa need to be shown total respect, they are thundering tacklers who will play with honour for their jersey and country, but England should end this year on a high and they will only do this if they win by not relying on set piece domination.