3 players axed from World Cup squad trained with England on Tuesday
Jonny May, Guy Porter and Jonny Hill were among the group of 10 players omitted from the England Rugby World Cup squad named on Monday, but head coach Steve Borthwick had all three involved in training on Tuesday at Teddington.
England are still waiting on some of their chosen RWC players to be medically cleared to play in the Summer Nations Series, while David Ribbans picked up a HIA versus Wales last Saturday in Cardiff and is also unavailable for this weekend’s rematch in London.
Borthwick had insisted on Monday that he was “very confident” that the 10 players rejected by him would be very capable of stepping back in if needed.
He quickly put that claim to the test the next day by having May, who hasn’t played at Test level since three Autumn Nations Series appearances last November under ex-England boss Eddie Jones, involved in the Tuesday session ahead of next Saturday’s warm-up at Twickenham.
Porter, a starter last Saturday, and Hill, who came off the bench at the Principality, were also involved in the practice and all three could potentially be involved this weekend if England are ultimately left short of options while negotiating an August schedule that also has friendlies versus Ireland and Fiji before the World Cup starts in Marseille against Argentina on September 9.
The head coach had stated before exiting Twickenham on Monday: “There is an opportunity that players will continue to be involved through these games. There are a couple of players that are still confirming exactly which game they will be available for, and Dave Ribbans is unavailable this weekend with a HIA so there is the potential.
“There are players staying around the squad at this stage. That will be assessed on a weekly basis. Will players away from the squad be checked in on and monitored? Yes.
“Tom Curry is not available this Saturday and is potentially unavailable for next week as well; we will have further updates on how he does this week. Ollie Chessum and Billy Vunipola are both very close. I’m not going to say in or out this week, I want to assess them.
“The medical reports are all very positive so we will see. They have been training with the team for a number of weeks now. Jack Walker potentially needs one more week. Dave Ribbans had a HIA at the weekend and it rules him out his week.”
England’s issues were reportedly added to by Joe Marchant training on his own and Manu Tuilagi sitting it out altogether on Tuesday.
The potential for May, Porter or Hill to play in a World Cup warm-up match for England after being excluded from the World Cup squad wouldn’t be an unprecedented development, however.
In 2019, just days before England flew to Japan for the finals, Marchant started the warm-up win over Italy in Newcastle and forwards Charlie Ewels and Matt Kvesic also came off the bench even though all three of them weren’t part of the 31-strong squad selected to go to the Far East.
Comments on RugbyPass
The first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
31 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
4 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
31 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
31 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to comments