Martin Johnson has dropped five players from England’s 45-man RWC training squad
England national Rugby Union team’s head coach, Martin Johnson, has reduced his initial 45-man 2011 Rugby World Cup (RWC) training squad to 40. Johnson dropped five players from the initial 45-man squad on Monday, August 1.
The players dropped from the squad include, London Wasps back row forward Joe Worsley, Gloucester Rugby’s back James Simpson-Daniel, Leicester duo of George Chuter and Thomas Waldrom, and Saracens winger David Strettle.
Speaking on the occasion, Johnson also provided the reasons, which forced him to take action. Regarding Joe Worsley, he said, “Joe has come back from some injuries last year and worked incredibly hard to get back in but has come up a little bit short right
now.”
Regarding Thomas Waldrom, Johnson confirmed that he has not recovered from a calf injury, which he sustained earlier. He added that the injury has kept him out of most of the training sessions and camps. He expressed his confidence that Waldrom will regain
his fitness with Leicester.
Johnson termed the axing of Saracens winger, David Strettle, as tough and praised his hard work during the training camps. Johnson further added that James Simpson-Daniel has also been dropped from the squad because his fitness was a concern.
The omission of the world cup winner, Worsley, has raised some criticism from different segments. Wasps back row forward Worsley so far has made 78 appearances for England, and was part of the outfit, which lifted the world title in 2003.
England will play their pre-World Cup warm-up matches on August 6 and 13 against their European rivals, Wales. England will host Wales at Twickenham, which will be followed by their encounter at Millennium Stadium.
Martin Johnson is expected to announce his team for the Twickenham encounter on Thursday or earlier. The revised England’s 40-man training squad for their 2011 RWC preparations includes,
Forwards: Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers), Alex Corbisiero (London Irish), Paul Doran-Jones (Northampton Saints), Tim Payne (London Wasps), Andrew Sheridan (Sale Sharks), Matt Stevens (Saracens), David Wilson (Bath Rugby), Dylan Hartley (Northampton
Saints), Lee Mears (Bath Rugby), Steve Thompson (London Wasps), Mouritz Botha (Saracens), Louis Deacon (Leicester Tigers), Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints), Tom Palmer (Stade Francais), Simon Shaw (London Wasps), Tom Croft (Leicester Tigers), Nick Easter
(Harlequins), Hendre Fourie (Sale Sharks), James Haskell (Unattached), Lewis Moody (Bath Rugby), Chris Robshaw (Harlequins), Tom Wood (Northampton Saints).
Backs: Delon Armitage (London Irish), Ben Foden (Northampton Saints), Chris Ashton (Northampton Saints), Mark Cueto (Sale Sharks), Ugo Monye (Harlequins), Charlie Sharples (Gloucester Rugby), Matt Banahan (Bath Rugby), Riki Flutey (London
Wasps), Shontayne Hape (London Irish), Mike Tindall (Gloucester Rugby), Manusamoa Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers), Toby Flood (Leicester Tigers), Charlie Hodgson (Saracens), Jonny Wilkinson (Toulon), Danny Care (Harlequins), Joe Simpson (London Wasps), Richard
Wigglesworth (Saracens), Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers).
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