The 3 England players whose World Cup dreams look dashed

Head coach Steve Borthwick has named a 38-man training squad for Brighton, a squad whose ranks have swollen by 10 from the one named on June 12th.

While the latest squad includes the players that were involved in Gallagher Premiership semi-final, there are three players missing from the 28-man squad despite the increase in size.

There appears to be no room for Harry Randall, Ollie Hassell-Collins and Ben Spencer. While an injury explanation has been given for Ollie Lawrence and Jack Walker – both have picked up lower limb niggles – there is no such explanation for Randall, Hassell-Collins or Spencer. There is also a mention for Billy Vunipola, Ollie Chessum and Luke Cowan-Dickie, who all remain in camp to continue their rehabilitation from injury.

The move suggests that all three are on be on outer in terms of Borthwick’s Rugby World Cup selection.

In the case of scrumhalves Randall and Spencer, it would seem Borthwick prefers Danny Care, Ben Youngs, Jack van Poortvliet and Alex Mitchell; who are all now fighting it out for the three likely berths at nine.

In the case of Hassell-Collins, it appears has lost out to one of Joe Cokanasiga, Jonny May, Anthony Watson and Tommy Freeman in his battle to make it onto England’s wing for the flagship tournament in France.

England’s Summer Series matches start against Wales at Principality Stadium on August 5th, followed by a rematch at Twickenham Stadium on August 12th. They then face Ireland at Aviva Stadium on August 19th and play Fiji at Twickenham Stadium on August 26th .