ENGLAND HAVE STUCK by their guns and will not take Steffon Armitage and Nick Abendanon to the Rugby World Cup.
Reigning European Player of the Year Nick Abendanon and last year’s winner of the award, Steffon Armitage, have had their hopes of representing England at the Rugby World Cup extinguished.
England’s long-held policy of not selecting players not based on British shores has come into the spotlight due to the impressive form of several players in the Top 14, especially full-back Abendanon and number eight Armitage.
Coach Stuart Lancaster has, as expected, included former rugby league star Sam Burgess in his 50-man provisional selection for the tournament on home soil.
It has been suggested that Burgess could fill the void at centre left by Manu Tuilagi after the Leicester man was stood down from World Cup selection over his arrest for assaulting a police officer.
England’s 50-man training squad: Chris Ashton (Saracens), Dave Attwood (Bath), Brad Barritt (Saracens), Kieran Brookes (Newcastle Falcons), Mike Brown (Harlequins), Luther Burrell (Northampton Saints), Sam Burgess (Bath), Danny Care (Harlequins), Danny Cipriani (Sale), Calum Clark (Northampton Saints), Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers), Alex Corbisiero (Northampton Saints), Luke Cowan-Dickie (Exeter Chiefs), Elliot Daly (Wasps), Lee Dickson (Northampton Saints), Kyle Eastmond (Bath), Nick Easter (Harlequins), Owen Farrell (Saracens), George Ford (Bath), Alex Goode (Saracens), Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints), James Haskell (Wasps), Maro Itoje (Saracens), Jonathan Joseph (Bath), Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints), Joe Launchbury (Wasps), George Kruis (Saracens), Matt Kvesic (Gloucester), Joe Marler (Harlequins), Jonny May (Gloucester), Stephen Myler (Northampton Saints), Ben Morgan (Gloucester), Matt Mullan (Wasps), Jack Nowell (Exeter Chiefs), Geoff Parling (Leicester Tigers), Chris Robshaw (Harlequins), Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs), Ed Slater (Leicester Tigers), David Strettle (Saracens), Billy Twelvetrees (Gloucester), Mako Vunipola (Saracens), Billy Vunipola (Saracens), Anthony Watson (Bath), Rob Webber (Bath), Richard Wigglesworth (Saracens), David Wilson (Bath), Tom Wood (Northampton Saints), Marland Yarde (Harlequins), Ben Youngs (Leicester), Tom Youngs (Leicester).
