England head coach Eddie Jones has named a 40-man squad for this week’s training camp in Bristol.
That means that Jones has added a further five players to the squad that trained last week, with Mike Brown, Alex Dombrandt, Marcus Smith, Tom Dunn and Ollie Thornley all coming in for a chance to impress.
However, Danny Cipriani, Sam Underhill and Anthony Watson have been sent off site to do specialised strength and conditioning training.
Jones has explained that the rotation of player’s duties is to keep the squad fresh and allow others to impress.
“Our preparation is about making sure the players peak for the World Cup. It’s not about being ready now for it. Some players we feel will benefit now from being away from the camp for a little bit and will do specialised strength and conditioning work. We want to keep the squad fresh and alive which is important and we want to make sure there is a little bit of cooperative competition for selection and edge around,” he said.
The head coach also spoke of how the workload will continue to increase for the squad this coming week while they train in Bristol.
“We are in Bristol this week as a bit of a change of scenery and pace. We have got good facilities and will continue to work very hard on particularly our physical conditioning but also our ability to implement our game plan under those physical conditions. The ante goes up again in this week. The players who have come in from the Premiership final will increase their contribution and the other guys are in their fourth week and are starting to get near good physical condition,” he added.
All of this work is in preparation for the World Cup however, England will play four warm-up games before the tournament itself. They face Wales on August 11th and 17th, before playing Ireland on August 24th and then Italy on September 6th.
The five players added to the squad will be hoping to impress over the next week and by bringing them in it shows Jones is still not certain of his final 31-man squad for Japan meaning places are up for grabs.
Check out the full 40-man training squad
below.
Forwards
Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers, 85 caps)
Luke Cowan-Dickie (Exeter Chiefs, 11 caps)
Tom Curry (Sale Sharks, 10 caps)
Alex Dombrandt (Harlequins, uncapped)
Tom Dunn (Bath Rugby, uncapped)
Charlie Ewels (Bath Rugby, 10 caps)
Ellis Genge (Leicester Tigers, 9 caps)
Jamie George (Saracens, 37 caps)
Maro Itoje (Saracens, 27 caps)
George Kruis (Saracens, 32 caps)
Joe Launchbury (Wasps, 58 caps)
Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints, 71
caps)
Lewis Ludlam (Northampton Saints, uncapped)
Joe Marler (Harlequins, 59 caps)
Ben Moon (Exeter Chiefs, 8 caps)
Brad Shields (Wasps, 8 caps)
Kyle Sinckler (Harlequins, 22 caps)
Jack Singleton (Saracens, uncapped)
Billy Vunipola (Saracens, 41 caps)
Mako Vunipola (Saracens, 53 caps)
Harry Williams (Exeter Chiefs, 17 caps)
Mark Wilson (Newcastle Falcons / Sale
Sharks, 13 caps)
Backs
Mike Brown (Harlequins, 72 caps)
Joe Cokanasiga (Bath Rugby, 4 caps)
Elliot Daly (Saracens, 30 caps)
Owen Farrell (Saracens, 70 caps)
George Ford (Leicester Tigers, 55 caps)
Piers Francis (Northampton Saints, 4 caps)
Willi Heinz (Gloucester Rugby, uncapped)
Jonathan Joseph (Bath Rugby, 40 caps)
Jonny May (Leicester Tigers, 45 caps)
Ruaridh McConnochie (Bath Rugby, uncapped)
Jack Nowell (Exeter Chiefs, 33 caps)
Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs, 22 caps)
Marcus Smith (Harlequins, upcapped)
Ben Spencer (Saracens, 3 caps)
Ben Te’o (unattached, 18 caps)
Ollie Thorley (Gloucester Rugby, uncapped)
Manu Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers, 32 caps)
Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers, 85 caps)
