England’s Training Squad to meet France
Simon Middleton has made yet another quite fascinating choice of 30 players to join the training squad for the first of two matches against France this weekend.
You can see the full list here.
First the absentees:
Sarah Bern, Hannah Botterman, Vicky Fleetwood, Mo Hunt and Lydia Thompson
Then the Thirty:
They divide unequally into various groupings: the regulars, the young hopefuls, new Sevens players, a handful who will be grateful to find their names on the list again, and one very senior player making an overdue return to the ranks. She is Laura Keates, the Worcester tight-head (60 caps), who appeared in the 2014 World Cup final to replace the great Sophie Hemming.
The Sevens group cause particular interest. If it turns out to be possible for them to appear in both the Tokyo Olympics and the World Cup – so much depends on the eventual scheduling – then Middleton’s choices for New Zealand become much wider and much more difficult.
In addition to Alex Matthews, Ellie Kildunne and Helena Rowland who all appeared in Parma, we find Abi Burton, Hollie Aitchison and Meg Jones in the mix. Though they were called into training sessions way back, this is their first chance this season to show their wares where it matters.
Three other players will be delighted to be included again: Heather Kerr, Kelly Smith and Lagi Tuima. Whereas Kerr has been invited along in a non-combative role recently, Smith was entirely absent from the 2020 Six Nations and Tuima has had to accept a long-term injury.
A very crowded bus
In the back-row alone there are seven candidates waiting for a seat: Beckett, Burton, Cleall, Hunter, Matthews, Millar-Mills and Packer.
In midfield we find Aitchison, Daley-Mclean, Harrison, Jones, Reed, Rowland, Scarratt and Tuima.
One solution is to let the regulars relax upstairs while testing the rest. But Middleton does expect the big W, there are world ranking places at stake and there’s no point in giving the opposition an easy ride.
France’s Choice
Annick Hayraud has listed 35 players for the two matches. They include some important names returning to the fold: Carla Neisen, Caroline Drouin, Chloe Pelle and
Shannon Izar from the Sevens squad (but not Romane Ménager), plus some newbies from the successful U20 group.
Whoever is chosen, les Bleues could prove to be an even tougher challenge than they were last year.
How to pick only 23
With both nations posting these large groups of players you can imagine the head coaches wishing they could include more than the regulation 23 in their final choices. But that would risk losing the full international status of the matches.
As it is, seven English players will miss out each time. The management will want to avoid the mishap that overtook France in Glasgow; If you bring all your replacements on early, you risk an injury reducing you to fourteen on the field. But if you want to give all 23 a good run-out, then you can’t wait till the 78th minute to empty your bench. A nice conundrum.
We can be sure of two more riveting crunches. The only missing element will be the crowd. The French surely chose Grenoble as their venue expecting to ride on the wave of public support the Stade des Alpes is famous for. Such a shame.
