CLIVE Woodward will ask England’s ‘Old Guard’ to prove they’ve still got what it takes against Scotland this weekend.

Captain Martin Johnson, 33, Jason Leonard, 34, and Neil Back, 34 – who have 227 international caps between them – return to the side for the RBS 6 Nations clash at Twickenham.

The return of three experienced players pushes the average age of the England pack above 30 – a fact highlighted by Scotland Rugby Director Jim Telfer in the build up to the game.

But England’s head coach insists form rather than experience is the evidence he uses to select a team - and he will use Telfer’s observation to fire up the players before the big game.

Woodward said: “I was interested to read in the paper Telfer saying that his team was much younger than the England pack – so I’ll make sure our guys are aware they are the ageing England pack.

“That should be interesting to see how our lads react to those comments!

“Having experience is great – as long as the players are the best. If I didn’t think Jason Leonard was a better player than Robbie Morris, I wouldn’t pick him regardless of his experience. The most important thing is that these players are better than the good young ones coming through.

“I think you can sometimes get carried away about experience. I look at every single Zurich Premiership game to see our more experienced players to make sure they’re playing up to form.”

England completed their preparations with a  closed training session at Twickenham on Friday.

And Woodward was expecting a strong physical challenge from Scotland, 30-22 winners against Wales a fortnight ago.

“I think this is an outstanding Scotland team,” he told the O2 RugbyLine.

“The pack will fancy their chances and at this level games are normally decided between one and eight. In the backline they have a quick team, Logan has fot some form back and we’re big fans of Townsend.

“Scotland will be a very easy team to coach this week. This is a great test for England.”