Quins England stars axed

3:39pm Tuesday 1st July 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

Team boss Martin Johnson has dropped Harlequins number eight Nick Easter from the senior England squad and axed Quins team-mate Will Skinner from the Saxons.

The World Cup winner named his first 64-man elite player squad as team manager on Tuesday, which sees scrum-half Danny Care rewarded with a spot in the senior set-up for his performances in New Zealand.

Team mates Mike Brown and David Strettle find themselves banished to the second string with World Cup finalist Easter, who captained his country at Twickenham only four weeks ago.

Quins skipper Will Skinner can count himself unlucky to miss out having led the Saxons to a successful defence of their Churchill Cup crown in North America this summer.

Under the terms of the eight-year agreement struck between the RFU and the Guinness Premiership clubs regarding player availability, the make-up of the two 32-man squads can only be changed in the event of injury.

It means neither Easter, Strettle and Brown or fellow Saxons Tom Guest and Ugo Monye, will feature in the autumn internationals unless those ahead of them in the pecking order are sidelined.

"There are some very good players in the Saxons who have to be there in case we have injuries. We always knew that was going to be a possibility," said Johnson.

"Nick Easter is in there as is Joe Worsley, Ben Kay and Mike Tindall. We have picked the guys who we think can do the job we ask them to do.

"There were some very tough calls in the back row and some players were very unlucky not to get in the squad. We explained that to them.

"It was a very tough call on Nick, but with the new lineout laws we need guys in the senior 32 who can also be part of the matchday squad and come off the bench with impact.

"Players outside the senior 32 have to be ready for Test match rugby."

Quins missed out on a Premiership play-off spot at the hands of Leicester Tigers, who have a total of eight players committed to the senior England cause next season.

With only Care distracted by the prospect of international duty prior to Christmas, Quins director of rugby Dean Richards will have a strong squad for the first half of the campaign.

England were well beaten in two Test matches against the Kiwis, but Johnson insists there were plenty of positives to be taken from a testing time Down Under.

"All those players that went on tour know what it is like to be playing top level Test match rugby. Some competed very well," he said.

"It is not going to get more difficult than that. They have done the hardest tour they could do."

He added: "If all the players involved in British rugby haven't learnt a lesson from what has gone on, they are never going to learn the lesson."