Lancaster tinkers EPS set-up

Published: Thursday, 5. July, 2012 in category England
Lancaster: Has confirmed his squads

Anthony Allen, Geoff Parling, Thomas Waldrom, Danny Care, Alex Goode, Tom Johnson and Jonathan Joseph are all added to the 32-man squad.

However, there is now place in the set-up for James Haskell or Dave Strettle, despite both having played on the tour to South Africa.

In total, 26 members of the squad that were involved in the five-match tour to South Africa are involved - with Tom Croft, Courtney Lawes, Charlie Sharples, Matt Stevens, Rob Webber and Tom Wood having missed the trip due to injury.

Lancaster has also handed first call-ups to George Ford, Matt Kvesic, Christian Wade, Nathan Catt and Rob Miller in the Saxons.

Lancaster said: "Congratulations to all those chosen for both squads. We spent a long time deciding on these 64 and there were some tough decisions to make.

"Selecting players at this stage gives us an early chance to sit down and assess the tour and look forward to next season.

"However, experience tells us that form and fitness will play a major role in selection prior to the QBE Internationals in November and December and any of the players in the Senior and Saxons squads could easily be involved.

"We saw this in January when Geoff Parling came in as an injury replacement for Louis Deacon and has played every Test since - there is always movement which opens the door for players and I am sure next season will be no different.

"The great thing is that we have got competition across the board and strength in depth developing in many positions with players who will be around for the next few years. There are also some exciting players just on the cusp of the squads such as Tom Homer, Charlie Matthews, Tom Heathcote and Elliot Daly, who we are really looking forward to seeing develop in the next 12 months and beyond."

England EPS: A Allen (Leicester), C Ashton (Saracens), B Barritt (Saracens), M Brown (Harlequins), D Care (Harlequins), L Dickson (Northampton), O Farrell (Saracens), T Flood (Leicester), B Foden (Northampton), A Goode (Saracens), J Joseph (London Irish), C Sharples (Gloucester), M Tuilagi (Leicester), J Turner-Hall (Harlequins), B Youngs (Leicester), M Botha (Saracens), A Corbisiero (London Irish), D Cole (Leicester), T Croft (Leicester), P Dowson (Northampton), D Hartley (Northampton), T Johnson (Exeter), C Lawes (Northampton), J Marler (Harlequins), B Morgan (Gloucester), T Palmer (Wasps), G Parling (Leicester), C Robshaw (Harlequins), M Stevens (Saracens), T Waldrom (Leicester), R Webber (Bath), T Wood (Northampton).

England Saxons: N Abendanon (Bath), M Benjamin (Leicester), T Biggs (Bath), F Burns (Gloucester), G Ford (Leicester), G Lowe (Harlequins), J May (Gloucester), R Miller (Sale Sharks), U Monye (Harlequins), J Simpson (Wasps), D Strettle (Saracens), B Twelvetrees (Gloucester), C Wade (Wasps), R Wigglesworth (Saracens), N Catt (Bath), C Clark (Northampton), L Deacon (Leicester), P Doran-Jones (Northampton), C Fearns (Bath), J Gaskell (Sale Sharks), J Gibson (London Irish), J Gray (Harlequins), J Haskell (Wasps), G Kitchener (Leicester), M Kvesic (Worcester), J Launchbury (Wasps), M Mullan (Worcester), D Paice (London Irish), G Robson (Harlequins), H Thomas (Sale Sharks), D Wilson (Bath), T Youngs (Leicester).