Flood hoping to fill back pages

Toby Flood steps into the fly-half limelight vacated by Danny Cipriani at Twickenham on Saturday determined to make some publicity of his own.

Toby Flood steps into the fly-half limelight vacated by Danny Cipriani at Twickenham on Saturday determined to make some publicity of his own.

The Leicester fly-half has been given his chance against New Zealand following three below-par performances by Cipriani in the autumn internationals.

Even though he will be matched against Dan Carter, arguably the world's best rugby player, Flood is relishing the opportunity in what will be only his fourth Test start in the playmaking role.

“I hope to make a mark. I've been waiting with baited breath to get a chance. It's difficult when you're waiting for an opportunity but I was happy the way I was playing at Leicester,” he said.

“You can only work as hard as you can. All you can do is give your very best. That is the main thing.

“I would have been disappointed not to be involved in the game.”

Flood's career began at Newcastle in the shadow of Jonny Wilkinson but Saturday will be his 22nd cap and he has recent experience of playing fly-half against the All Blacks and Carter, having started the summer Test in Christchurch which New Zealand won 44-12 and Carter scored 22 points.

“The physicality of the All Blacks and the pace with which they played really opened our eyes. They were very clinical,” he continued.

“But it is all about us, our patterns and how we want to play the game. It's an exciting challenge.”

Flood is under no illusions about the pressure he will be under, having seen Cipriani struggle to cope against Australia and last week in the 42-6 defeat against South Africa.

He is ready for the criticism too, which will come his way if he cannot provide England with the astute decision-making which has been lacking so far this autumn series.

“In any game in any sport there are decision makers and the onus falls on them. The pitcher in baseball, the quarterback in American Football. If you make a couple of errors then people will make a point of it,” Flood said.

“The squad is very upset about what happened [against South Africa]. We were destroyed after the game to have lost by so much and to have let each other and the fans down.

“You could see in the eyes of the guys after the game they were hugely disappointed. We want to bounce back. We had our twelve hours of feeling sorry for ourselves but now we move forward.

“We are looking for the potential three years down the line but that's no excuse, you have to perform in internationals.

“You can't go and lose and lose and lose and say it's okay we're still building. We want to achieve what we can for the future by winning.”