ENGLAND stars Danny Grewcock and Mike Tindall hope to prove their fitness for next week's RBS Six Nations Championship clash against Wales.
Both players missed Saturday's 19-13 defeat when Ireland became the first team since October 1999 to win a Test match at Twickenham.
Bath lock Grewcock has been nursing an Achilles problem but was due to train with his club yesterday.
Centre Tindall continued on the comeback trail following a serious ankle injury by playing a full 80 minutes for England A against France A in Perpignan two days ago.
They could now conceivably line up for Bath United in next Saturday's Zurich A League appointment with London Irish at the Recreation Ground.
England coach Clive Woodward is due to name his squad for the Wales game on Thursday - and Grewcock and Tindall are central to England making a quick recovery from the Ireland horror show.
"Everyone has reported back fit, except for the odd case of bruised pride," said Bath coach John Connolly.
"We have numbers on the training paddock this week. We do not yet know who will be selected for the England versus Wales game, and obviously that will be factored into our preparations this week."
As for giving some of his international players a run-out against Irish, Connolly added: "It is something that we have considered, but we will not be making any decisions until Wednesday. It is better to be playing than not."
Despite Woodward's pledge not to over-react following the Ireland set-back, changes must be inevitable.
Full-back Iain Balshaw, wing Ben Cohen, lock Ben Kay and flanker Joe Worsley look under threat - while hooker Steve Thompson must still be wondering how his throwing-in contrived to help England lose 11 line-outs.
Mark Regan could oust Thompson. But the Northampton forward offers England so much in other areas - and hard work on the training field, rather than Woodward's selection axe, is a likely outcome.
Assuming that the likes of Grewcock and Tindall are fully fit, they should return to the starting XV.
Tindall, who last played for England in the World Cup final, would allow centre stand-in Jason Robinson to feature at wing or full-back - while Grewcock, man of the match against Scotland last month, would replace Kay or his Bath colleague Steve Borthwick.
Gloucester wing James Simpson-Daniel is on the verge of a recall, and 35-year-old Neil Back must also feature strongly in Woodward's thoughts - reuniting the revered Back/Richard Hill/Lawrence Dallaglio unit.
England have always bounced back quickly from defeats during the Woodward era.
After losing to Wales at Wembley in the 1999 Five Nations Champion-ship, England won 10 of their next 12 Tests - and they recorded 19 victories from 20 starts following Ireland's Grand Slam-wrecking win in October 2001.
Wales, whose scrum suffered a horrible pounding against France on Sunday, are unlikely to emulate the Irish.
Since Bleddyn Bowen's Triple Crown-winning team won at Twickenham in 1988, Wales have suffered seven successive losses on their trips to red-rose headquarters - conceding 250 points and scoring just 77.
Such a sequence underlines the magnitude of their task, and England still have the championship's best points difference - plus 57 - which could yet help them land another Six Nations crown, even though all Grand Slam hopes have gone.
