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Rugby Union

Ashton allays injury fears

19/08/2007

England coach Brian Ashton says captain Phil Vickery will be fit to play in the World Cup despite being carried off the field against France yesterday.

The prop was injured when he collided with lock Simon Shaw who was attempting to tackle Damien Traille just before half-time.

England also lost Martin Corry to a knee injury and scrum-half Shaun Perry limped off during the second half.

But Ashton said: "Phil Vickery is concussed, Martin Corry has a bent knee and Shaun Perry has a dead leg but all will be fit for the World Cup."

The former Bath coach was not pleased with the way his side performed in the 22-9 defeat in Marseille, claiming they had taken a backward step compared to their previous two World Cup warm-up games.

He said: "The big disappointment is that the basics of our game that were there against Wales and France during the past two weeks let us down tonight.

"You do not win games over here if you do not get the fundamentals right."

Ashton praised the French forwards who he felt improved their defence compared to last week at Twickenham.

However, he was still disappointed with his backs who he thought lacked a cutting edge and made too many handling errors.

"I said at half-time that we needed to show composure when we had the ball, but after two or three phases the ball would be turned over," explained Ashton.

"You would expect a lot more composure to be shown, but it just was not there."

England's final warm-up game is against Wales at the Millennium Stadium next week.

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