Tuesday 20 November 2012

Tank dropped but 6 others retained

England have responded to their loss to Australia by dropping Thomas "the Tank" Waldrom alongside Charlie Sharples and Tom Johnson.  Anthony Allen is again cut loose as England refuse to play the awesome foursome of Youngs, Flood, Allen and Tuilagi internationally despite their domination of domestic rugby.  

England have only picked one winger, Saracens Chris Ashton, so one of Jonathan Joseph, Mike Brown or Tuilagi will play on the wing.  It seems Lancaster is determined not to play a coherent back line at any point in his reign.
Wasps James Haskell has been called into the 24 man squad and looks set to feature.  This alters the balance of the Tigers v Wasps match significantly as now Wasps are missing both their first choice locks and a flanker, when they were probably only anticipating losing Palmer, whilst Tigers have Waldrom available again for selection.  

Though that is a selection headache Cockerill probably could have done without as JC was lined up to play the next two weeks.  

Retained in the squad are the 6 other Tigers that have featured in the past two test matches.

England squad:
Forwards

Mouritz Botha (Saracens)
Alex Corbisiero (London Irish)
Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers)

James Haskell (London Wasps)
Joe Launchbury (London Wasps)
Ben Morgan (Gloucester Rugby)
David Paice (London Irish)
Tom Palmer (London Wasps)
Geoff Parling (Leicester Tigers)

Chris Robshaw (Harlequins)(c)
Mako Vunipola (Saracens)
David Wilson (Bath Rugby)
Tom Wood (Northampton Saints)
Tom Youngs (Leicester Tigers)

Backs
Chris Ashton (Saracens)
Brad Barritt (Saracens)
Mike Brown (Harlequins)
Danny Care (Harlequins)
Owen Farrell (Saracens)
Toby Flood (Leicester Tigers)

Alex Goode (Saracens)
Jonathan Joseph (London Irish)
Manusamoa Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers)
Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers)


The following 11 players have been released back to their clubs.
Anthony Allen (Leicester Tigers)

Lee Dickson (Northampton Saints)
Phil Dowson (Northampton Saints)
Tom Johnson (Exeter Chiefs)
Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints)
Joe Marler (Harlequins)
Ugo Monye (Harlequins)
George Robson (Harlequins)
Charlie Sharples (Gloucester Rugby)
Jordan Turner-Hall (Harlequins)
Thomas Waldrom (Leicester Tigers)


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