England’s Rugby World Cup 2015

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TheresaMiller
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England’s Rugby World Cup 2015

Post by TheresaMiller »

The final 31-man England squad revealed on 27 August is a young one. With an average age of 26, only three of the squad have over 50 England caps. Seven of the selected men have accrued ten or less caps for their country. By Taylor Heyman.
It’s a standard split of 17 forwards and 14 backs and the selected players come from a spread of Aviva Premiership clubs. Saracens and Bath have made the largest contributions; just under half of the final squad.

Forwards

Lancaster named three hookers: Jamie George, Rob Webber and Tom Youngs. Banned Dylan Hartley has not been included, but Lancaster refused to rule out a return to the squad in the event of injury.

As expected, Dan Cole will be the lynchpin of the front row, one of seven players in the team with World Cup experience. He is joined by David Wilson, Joe Marler and Mako Vunipola. Northampton Saint Kieran Brookes is the least experienced prop in the squad, but has shown promise in the 2014 autumn Internationals and 2015 Six Nations.

Courtney Lawes, Geoff Parling, Joe Launchbury and George Kruis were named in the second row.
Owen Farrell and George Ford were selected as expected at fly-half, with Henry Slade offering another option. His ability to play well at both ten and 12 have given him the edge in selection.

Joining Slade in the centres are Brad Barritt, Jonathan Joseph and Sam Burgess.

Without doubt the biggest upset in the selection was Luther Burrell being dropped in favour of Sam Burgess, the ex-league player with one international cap.

Competition for the back three was intense. Mike Brown, Alex Goode, Jonny May, Jack Nowell and Anthony Watson were selected. Danny Cipriani lost out to Alex Goode, who like Cipriani, can play at fly-half if needed.
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