Danny Cipriani has been informed that he will not be part of England’s Rugby World Cup squad which is due to be announced on Thursday.
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In that time England gave away silly penalties which would have anxious Lancaster as his forwards were battered around every inch of the Stade de France pitch.
“Henry Slade’s selection provides a creative alternative to Burgess and Brad Barritt, with the England coaches stressing this week the need for balance across the squad”.
Northampton’s Luther Burrell was the centre to miss out as Henry Slade of Exeter was included alongside Burgess.
With just 70 minutes of Test rugby under his belt since his switch from rugby league, Carling questions whether Burgess has earned his place.
It is under-stood that Cipriani has failed to make the cut despite an impressive try-scoring cameo in the 25-20 -defeat by France, while Lancaster is poised to name Mike Brown and Alex Goode as his two full-backs, where Cipriani had been providing cover.
England head coach Lancaster said: “It’s really positive that we have such depth and options to choose from”.
Up front, the Saracens lock George Kruis was thought to be marginally ahead of the heavier but less mobile Dave Attwood of Bath in the race for the single vacancy in the engine room.
“After ten weeks in camp we have made our final selection of players and we believe we have a great group to take us into the tournament”. It seems only yesterday that we were commenting on the wider 50 man training squad and in the blink of an eye England have completed weeks of hard work at Pennyhill Park, trained in Denver and played in two warm up games.
Having only moved to union in the past year after joining the west country outfit from NRL side the South Sydney Rabbitohs, Burgess has been selected as one of the four centres England will chose from at the World Cup, despite playing as a flanker for the majority of his performances at Bath last season.
“Then in terms of Cipriani’s chances at No.10, there is no stand-out fly-half now like Jonny was in 2003 but I think right now going into that Fiji game George Ford just about has an edge”.
“I’m in awe of Sam as a rugby league player, but there is no one that I have spoken to who I respect – ex-players, coaches – who thinks he’s ready”, said Carling at an event for World Cup sponsors Heineken in London on Wednesday.
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“He’s been playing union for 10 months and half of that was in a different position to what England are playing him in”.
