Quins stars snubbed by Johnson

9:46am Wednesday 2nd July 2008

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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 for his performances in New Zealand with a spot in the senior set-up.

But team-mates Mike Brown and David Strettle find themselves banished to the second string, along with World Cup finalist Easter, who captained his country against the Barbarians 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 be changed only in the event of injury.

It means neither Easter, Strettle and Brown nor fellow Saxons Tom Guest and Ugo Monye will feature in the autumn internationals unless players 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," Johnson said.

"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 Johnson's former club Leicester Tigers, who will have eight players committed to the senior England cause next season.

With only Care distracted by international duty prior to Christmas, Quins director of rugby Dean Richards will have close to a full compliment available for the first half of the Premiership campaign.