Walshe in Nick of time for England
June 7, 2001

Leeds scrum-half Scott Benton is out of England's tour of North America, and will be replaced by Saracens' Nick Walshe.

Although Benton will stay with the party, the neck injury he picked up in Tuesday night's victory over British Columbia has proved sufficient to prevent him from taking any further part in the three remaining games.

The uncapped Walshe will fly out as a replacement rather than England manager Clive Woodward having to ask Olly Barkley to continue as cover as he did on an emergency basis in Vancouver.

Wasps' Martyn Wood has recovered from what has now been diagnosed as a bout of tonsilitis and takes his place as replacement scrum-half for Saturday's second Test, with Walshe's club-mate Kyran Bracken wearing the No 9 jersey.

The only change to England's starting line-up from the 22-10 win in the first Test is a recall for Wasps lock Simon Shaw in place of Steve Borthwick.

Shaw would have started the win in Markham last weekend but was still struggling to shake off an ankle problem, and now steps up from the replacements' bench.

Leicester's Ben Kay retains his place so Borthwick, good enough to start England's most recent Six Nations Championship match with France in April, cannot even content himself with a place on the bench, where Harlequins' Steve White-Cooper's extra versatility gets him the nod.

The only other alteration sees Woodward name Mark Regan as replacement hooker instead of Andy Long.

England are looking to extend their winning run to 10 matches and will fancy their chances as Woodward's young team should improve on last Saturday's performance.

England team v Canada, 2nd Test, Burnaby, Saturday, June 9 (midnight BST):

J Lewsey (Wasps); P Sampson (Wasps), L Lloyd (Leicester), J Noon (Newcastle), M Stephenson (Newcastle); D Walder (Newcastle), K Bracken (Saracens, capt); G Rowntree (Leicester), D West (Leicester), J White (Saracens), S Shaw (Wasps), B Kay (Leicester), M Corry (Leicester), L Moody (Leicester), J Worsley (Wasps)

Replacements: M Regan (Bath), D Flatman (Saracens), S White-Cooper (Harlequins), P Sanderson (Harlequins), M Wood (Wasps), A King (Wasps), T Stimpson (Leicester)

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