It's all change for England's new captain, reports Brian Dick...

Six weeks ago, Pat Sanderson was neither a father nor captain of England's rugby team. Since then, both situations have changed in less time than it takes to go sightseeing round the underworld.

Having become a parent to baby Max early last month, Sanderson was this week named skipper of the Red Rose army due to visit Australia next month for a trip that is already being dubbed The Tour of Hell II.

The moniker is a reference to the ill-fated venture of 1998, when a battalion of this country's brightest young talents - a 20-year-old Sanderson included - were packed off to the other side of the planet, whereupon they were ambushed by the blood-thirsty locals.

Four tests, two each against New Zealand and the Wallabies, resulted in the concession of 198 points and included a whopping 73-0 thrashing by the crowing Australians.

What started off as a bargain-basement whistle-stop trip to Hades quickly became the most infamous escapade in the history of English rugby. Many players never recovered.

Sanderson is not one of those who fell by the wayside. Although he struggled to get back into the national team on any regular basis until last autumn, he continued to develop into a dynamic and robust back-row forward.

But the move to newly-promoted Worcester, as they were when he made it two years ago, breathed life into his career and the way things have worked out since then has proved the rectitude of a decision that some derided as a gamble.

He has been a charismatic leader of the division's newest club, ferociously competitive and unerringly dedicated. Under his captaincy, the Sixways side has become a respected opponent in the sport's top flight.

Things have gone well personally, too. After a brilliant 2004-5 campaign, he spent the summer leading the England A team's successful Churchill Cup challenge in Canada.

He returned to Sixways, made a sizzling start to the season and earned himself a call-up for the autumn series against Samoa, New Zealand and Australia.

Driving performances, particularly against Richie McCaw and the All Blacks, meant the blindside role was his, only for injury to strike as it tends to do when your name's Sanderson.

A nagging back problem put him out of the Six Nations and most of the middle part of Worcester's campaign. His return, however, has been typically forceful and while several of Andy Robinson's senior players were stood down from duty, the England head coach turned to his trusted lieutenant to lead the party.

That responsibility, added to the one that arrived on April 11, has changed Sanderson's world.

"Life is very different now, but more so because of the little lad," he said. "It'll be good to go on tour because at least I'll get a month's sleep!

"But being made England captain is the sort of thing you dream about but not some-thing you can ever expect. It's such an honour.

"Andy phoned me and told me I had been selected but he also said he wanted us to meet and talk. When we spoke after the PRA (Professional Rugby Players Association) dinner, he offered me the captaincy and I bit his hand off."

The ascent to a post previously held by legends such as Martin Johnson, Will Carling and Bill Beaumont completes a remarkable few months for Sanderson.

When he first came back into the Worcester side, against Bristol in January, he lasted just 40 minutes and the thread by which his Six Nations hopes dangled was cut quicker than the proverbial umbilical cord.

He missed all five games, as many chances to go out on the beer with his England teammates - a loss only rugby-playing fathers will understand - and most of his club's run-in at a time when they desperately needed him. When he hobbled out of the picture, they were fourth; when he returned, they were in the bottom half.

He regained his match-fitness quickly, looked comfortable playing the more expansive game his side were developing and now he could be the next man to get his hands on rugby's World Cup.

"That's something I'm not even thinking about," he laughed. Life's changed, but not that much."