Two more England players' RWC dreams come to an end

England head coach Steve Borthwick continues to make tough decisions as he whittles down his training squad ahead of the Rugby World Cup.

Borthwick’s latest selection call appears to be effectively cutting two more players from the wider squad, with Ben Obano and Will Joseph sent home.

The exclusion of the pair comes after Borthwick named a 36-man side that still does not include Sale Sharks and Saracens players who took part in the Gallagher Premiership Final, so the brute fact is many more players will face the chopping block as Borthwick aims to arrive at his final 33-man squad for the Rugby World Cup.

The omission of Obano and Joseph suggests they are now very much on the margins of Borthwick’s World Cup plans. They join the likes of Harry Randall, Ollie Hassell-Collins and Ben Spencer in an expanding group of players whose World Cup hopes are now very much in doubt.

Meanwhile Ollie Chessum of Leicester Tigers, Luke Cowan-Dickie of Exeter Chiefs, Ollie Lawrence of Bath Rugby, and Jack Walker of Harlequins are all continuing their recovery from injuries and are still part of the training setup.

The upcoming Summer Nations Series will provide Borthwick and his coaching team with an opportunity to assess the remaining players in competitive matches. England’s first match is against Wales at the Principality Stadium on Saturday 5 August, followed by a return fixture at Twickenham Stadium a week later. They will then travel to Dublin to face Ireland at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday 19 August before returning to Twickenham to play Fiji on Saturday 26 August.

BACKS: H Arundell (London Irish), D Care (Harlequins), J Cokanasiga (Bath), F Dingwall (Northampton), T Freeman (Northampton), J Marchant (Harlequins), J May (Gloucester), A Mitchell (Northampton), C Murley (Harlequins), G Porter (Leicester), H Slade (Exeter), F Smith (Northampton), M Smith (Harlequins), F Steward (Leicester), J Van Poortvliet (Leicester), A Watson (Leicester), B Youngs (Leicester).

FORWARDS:J Blamire (Newcastle), D Cole (Leicester), A Dombrandt (Harlequins), T Dunn (Bath), C Ewels (Bath), E Genge (Bristol), J Heyes (Leicester), T Hill (Bath), C Lawes (Northampton), L Ludlam (Northampton), J Marler (Harlequins), G Martin (Leicester), Z Mercer (Montpellier), T Pearson (London Irish), V Rapava-Ruskin (Gloucester), D Ribbans (Northampton), K Sinckler (Bristol), W Stuart (Bath), S Underhill (Bath).