Saracens winger Chris Ashton has replaced Ugo Monye in England’s 23-man squad for this weekend’s rugby international against Australia at Twickenham.
Ashton was suspended for England’s 54-12 victory over Fiji last weekend but he has been recalled to face the Wallabies, against whom he has scored three tries in three Tests.
The inclusion of Ashton is the only change to the match-day squad made by head coach Stuart Lancaster, who has decided not to rush Jonathan Joseph or Alex Corbisiero back into the squad.
Corbisiero played his first game in five months for the London Irish last weekend after recovering from a knee injury and Lancaster wants him to get another club game under his belt.
Joseph is fit again after shaking an ankle injury but he will join Corbisiero in being available for London Irish in their game against Leicester.
Lancaster will finalise his starting XV on Thursday but Ashton and Charlie Sharples are the likely wing selections, with Monye released to play for Harlequins.
Wasps lock Joe Launchbury is pushing hard for a first Test start while Thomas Waldrom appears to have retained the number eight shirt after Ben Morgan was among 13 players released.
Manu Tuilagi has not trained this week and he spent Tuesday undergoing rehabilitation on a sprained foot but England are confident he will be fit to play on Saturday (Sunday AEDT).
England’s 23-man squad for the Test against Australia at Twickenham: Forwards: D Cole (Leicester Tigers), T Johnson (Exeter Chiefs), J Launchbury (London Wasps), J Marler (Harlequins), T Palmer (London Wasps), D Paice (London Irish), G Parling (Leicester Tigers), C Robshaw (Harlequins, capt), M Vunipola (Saracens), T Waldrom (Leicester Tigers), D Wilson (Bath Rugby), T Wood (Northampton Saints), T Youngs (Leicester Tigers). Backs: C Ashton (Saracens), B Barritt (Saracens), M Brown (Harlequins), D Care (Harlequins), O Farrell (Saracens), T Flood (Leicester Tigers), A Goode (Saracens), C Sharples (Gloucester Rugby), M Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers), B Youngs (Leicester Tigers).
Felix
Guest
Monye is just too slow to be a winger,atleast if he had an explosive start
Louis
Guest
Would have liked to see Corbs on the bench, when Croft is back in the 6 jersey it will be a good pack, not to mention Lawes and Hartley. Im really looking forward to Danny Care humiliating Nick Phipps and Chris Ashton skinning Digby Ioane to shut the joker up.
Ben.S
Roar Guru
The thing with quick feet is that sometimes it slows the attack down when the player tries to stand up his man, whereas Monye, as one-dimensional as he is, tends to always knock a tackler back a bit, which gives quick ball. He has a very good leg drive. Anyway, I'm reasonably content he misses out, because his pass that led to the Fijian's first try last week shows how little his ball skills have improved since the Lions tour. I swear Waldrom made a number of mistakes, especially handling errors. Not sure re the 6 jersey: I like Wood because he is very good in the air, but Johnson runs great lines and is a much better support player in attack. He's also pretty handy in the air too, he just isn't that big, and ATM the English back row is comparatively short. Defensively we should be able to contain the Wallabies - although Ioane is a real threat IMO, as there is no real attempt to do anything off the cuff from the Australian. England did look really average in the first 20 minutes, but when the forwards started off-loading and when Goode starting popping into the line I thought they looked dangerous. Mike Harris has played a lot at first receiver, as has Barnes, and not once during the RC did we see anything like Alex Goode was doing. But it all starts up front, and no doubt the Wallaby pack will be really up for this.
ChrisT
Guest
Yep, happy to see Monye replaced. Give me dancing feet in a winger everytime over a bloke who seems to prefer running at people. It is a worry we have to field two right wings but i actually don't want to see Ashton out there too much - get him infield tracking play where we've seen him at his most dangerous. Waldrom didn't do too much wrong but you'd have to think Morgan is the future. I'd be playing him. Johnson still hasn't stamped his name on the shirt but then again, nor has Wood - it's about time someone did. Launchbury for Palmer would be my call. Tough game to call on the back of the preceeding games. Fiji were pretty poor apart from the opening 15 and we were hardly precise, even given it was the first game with yet again, a whole bunch of team changes. Take nothing away from the French, Australia looked what they fielded - a very average team - but they cannot play that badly again. Can they?
Ben.S
Roar Guru
Monye still doesn't really have the skills to play Test football, but he is a powerful athlete which might be more relevant against Australia than Sharple's quick feet. All things considered I'd still probably rather have Sharples in the side ahead of him, but the issue then is that both he and Ashton are bonafide right wingers. Pretty disappointed that Thomas Waldrom is in the side ahead of Ben Morgan. He has ability, but his core skills seem a bit imprecise at this level. Maybe if Ben Youngs was starting then I could see the logic in a Leicester Tigers 2-5-8-9-10-13 spine, but both Easter and Morgan have been far better in the Premiership this season (granted Waldrom has been played out of position at 7). Other than that the only changes I would consider would be Wood for Johnson at 6 and Launchbury for Palmer at 4.