3 players axed from World Cup squad trained with England on Tuesday

Jonny May, Guy Porter and Jonny Hill were among the group of 10 players omitted from the England Rugby World Cup squad named on Monday, but head coach Steve Borthwick had all three involved in training on Tuesday at Teddington.

England are still waiting on some of their chosen RWC players to be medically cleared to play in the Summer Nations Series, while David Ribbans picked up a HIA versus Wales last Saturday in Cardiff and is also unavailable for this weekend’s rematch in London.

Borthwick had insisted on Monday that he was “very confident” that the 10 players rejected by him would be very capable of stepping back in if needed.

He quickly put that claim to the test the next day by having May, who hasn’t played at Test level since three Autumn Nations Series appearances last November under ex-England boss Eddie Jones, involved in the Tuesday session ahead of next Saturday’s warm-up at Twickenham.

Porter, a starter last Saturday, and Hill, who came off the bench at the Principality, were also involved in the practice and all three could potentially be involved this weekend if England are ultimately left short of options while negotiating an August schedule that also has friendlies versus Ireland and Fiji before the World Cup starts in Marseille against Argentina on September 9.

The head coach had stated before exiting Twickenham on Monday: “There is an opportunity that players will continue to be involved through these games. There are a couple of players that are still confirming exactly which game they will be available for, and Dave Ribbans is unavailable this weekend with a HIA so there is the potential.

“There are players staying around the squad at this stage. That will be assessed on a weekly basis. Will players away from the squad be checked in on and monitored? Yes.

“Tom Curry is not available this Saturday and is potentially unavailable for next week as well; we will have further updates on how he does this week. Ollie Chessum and Billy Vunipola are both very close. I’m not going to say in or out this week, I want to assess them.

“The medical reports are all very positive so we will see. They have been training with the team for a number of weeks now. Jack Walker potentially needs one more week. Dave Ribbans had a HIA at the weekend and it rules him out his week.”

England’s issues were reportedly added to by Joe Marchant training on his own and Manu Tuilagi sitting it out altogether on Tuesday.

The potential for May, Porter or Hill to play in a World Cup warm-up match for England after being excluded from the World Cup squad wouldn’t be an unprecedented development, however.

In 2019, just days before England flew to Japan for the finals, Marchant started the warm-up win over Italy in Newcastle and forwards Charlie Ewels and Matt Kvesic also came off the bench even though all three of them weren’t part of the 31-strong squad selected to go to the Far East.