IAIN Balshaw yesterday reaped the reward for his heroics against Australia last week when he was handed his first start in an England rugby shirt.

Balshaw came off the bench to set up England's last-ditch winner in a stirring and inventive cameo performance against the world champions.

He replaces Bath team-mate Matt Perry at full-back as England coach Clive Woodward caps a dramatic week by making five changes for tomorrow's Test match against Argentina.

Ben Cohen, missing from the Australian clash because of the death of his father, returns on the wing in place of Austin Healey, who pays the price for a suspect performance by being left out of the 22-man squad.

Mark Regan comes in for the injured Phil Greening at hooker, Matt Dawson replaces Kyran Bracken at scrum-half in a premeditated switch by Woodward, and Julian White comes in for the rested Phil Vickery at prop.

But it is the inclusion of Balshaw, at 21 the youngest man in the England squad, in his preferred role of full-back - a position Perry had made his own for club and country with some impressive performances over the past three years - which is the most exciting development in Woodward's thinking.

Balshaw, a down-to-earth Lancashire lad from Blackburn, has already proved in his six appearances as a replacement that he possesses the speed of thought and foot on the wing to be a game-breaker.

He might well have made the breakthrough even sooner but for a serious groin and abdomen injury which required surgery last May and kept him out of England's summer tour of South Africa.

''I was gutted to miss that tour,'' admitted Balshaw, who first suffered the injury in the Paris Sevens of 1999 and who last played full-back for his club in the Heineken Cup against Swansea last season.

''I thought I had a good chance of starting the Tests, and it was devastating.

"I didn't expect to be back as quickly as I was because I had torn fibres in my groin and five layers of my abdomen.

"It was pretty painful. But I am just glad it is all sorted now.

''I am delighted to be starting at full-back but I am not bothered where I play - wing, full-back or outside centre - so long as I do.

''Matt Perry has been very complimentary and he has congratulated me. He just knows he has to get on with it. That's sport. I've been sitting on the bench for a lot of games.''

The traumas of the last week of breakdowns in relations between players and the RFU over pay have not been the ideal preparation for an experienced member of the squad, let alone the precocious Balshaw.

He was forced to return to his Bath home on Tuesday when Woodward delivered his ultimatum to England's first rugby strikers and ejected the squad from the team hotel.

Balshaw returned at 6.45am the next day to a temporary base at Wentworth to await a conclusion to the pay deal.

''I was knackered, and it has been a very anxious week,'' said Balshaw.

''Everyone was worried from the youngest player to the oldest. I just wanted it all to be sorted out as quickly as possible and get on with the Test match. Now I'm just looking forward to playing on Saturday and beating the Argentinians.''

Prop Jason Leonard will be given the honour of leading out the England team for a match in which he becomes the most capped English rugby player of all time with his 86th cap, breaking the previous record set by Rory Underwood.

''It's a great honour,'' said Leonard, who was England captain and scored his only international try the last time Argentina played at Twickenham in 1996.

Woodward has blamed the Rugby Football Union for the strike action which wrecked the build-up to the Test.

''I disagreed with the players' actions at the time, and my position hasn't changed,'' said Woodward.

''However, the RFU has to take large responsibility for what has happened. To allow it to get to this position was totally unacceptable.

''It was a poor situation, and I was determined to get both sides into a corner and get it sorted out.

Woodward insisted on a deal being thrashed out on Tuesday night when he and the players attended a fund-raising function in London.

''I told them not to leave until it was sorted out,'' he revealed.

''Maybe that was too confrontational but, from a positive point of view, it is now done and this situation will not happen again.

''I have already spoken to RFU chief executive Francis Baron and agreed that the players must meet with the management board on a regular basis to move things forward so this doesn't happen again."

England team: I Balshaw (Bath); B Cohen (Northampton), M Tindall (Bath), M Catt (Bath), D Luger (Saracens); J Wilkinson (Newcastle), M Dawson (Northampton); J Leonard (Harlequins), M Regan (Bath), J White (Saracens), M Johnson (Leicester, capt), D Grewcock (Saracens), R Hill (Saracens), N Back (Leicester), L Dallaglio (Wasps). Replacements: D West (Leicester), D Flatman (Saracens), P Vickery (Gloucester), M Corry (Leicester), K Bracken (Saracens), W Greenwood (Harlequins), M Perry (Bath).

l Darlington scrum half Robbie Stewart scored two tries as England beat the Arabian Gulf 27-0 in the World Sevens Series in Dubai yesterday. They also beat Georgia 33-12 before losing 40-7 to the All Blacks.

After losing all their matches in Durban last week, England expect to play Fiji in the Dubia quarter-finals today