England call up Danny Cipriani and Nick Easter for Six Nations

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/jan/20/england-danny-cipriani-nick-easter-six-nations

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Nick Easter and Danny Cipriani will be recalled from the international wilderness when England announce a 34-man training squad for the opening game of the Six Nations Championship against Wales in Cardiff. Easter is set to be involved for the first time since the 2011 Rugby World Cup while Cipriani has not featured in a championship game for seven years.

The 36-year-old Easter owes his return to the broken leg sustained by Gloucester’s Ben Morgan this month but has been an influential figure for Harlequins all season. Cipriani, 27, will be joining the squad as injury cover with Kyle Eastmond and Anthony Watson nursing knocks sustained during Bath’s spectacular win in Toulouse on Sunday.

England’s injury list is already starting to lengthen, with Northampton’s luckless Ben Foden effectively out of the World Cup picture after rupturing the cruciate ligament in his left knee against Ospreys at the weekend. Manu Tuilagi and Courtney Lawes are struggling to play any part in this season’s Six Nations while Joe Launchbury and Morgan are also sidelined.

The door, meanwhile, remains ajar for Sam Burgess to be added to England’s Six Nations plans if he can impress for the Saxons against the Ireland Wolfhounds in Cork on Friday week. The former rugby league international will be named in a 26-man Saxons party, with the England management making clear the senior squad will be reassessed following the Wales game on 6 February and is not guaranteed to stay unchanged for the entire campaign.

What unfolds at the Millennium Stadium is likely to set the tone for the remainder of the tournament but, for now, Stuart Lancaster will keep faith with the majority of the squad who were involved in the November internationals.

Lawes’s enforced absence, however, may open the way for Leicester’s Graham Kitchener at lock, while Jonathan Joseph’s sparkling performances for Bath should also see him fill the squad vacancy left by Tuilagi, whose groin problem looks set to exclude him from the entire tournament. For the time being, however, Brad Barritt and Luther Burrell remain in pole position to be the midfield pairing against the Welsh, with Billy Twelvetrees’s immediate Test future looking uncertain.

Eastmond, who suffered a stinger, and Watson, who took a couple of bangs to the head, are not thought to be serious doubts at this stage but Lancaster has taken the opportunity to add Cipriani as a fourth fly-half and invite him to show the management what he can do in training. The Sale fly-half and former Wasp is weighing up whether to stay in the Premiership or move abroad and this timely olive branch may yet persuade him to stick around rather than try his luck in France.

James Haskell, his former club colleague who is pushing increasingly hard for a starting place in the back-row against the Welsh, has some sympathy for Cipriani, who won two replacement caps in New Zealand last summer after previously not featuring since 2008. “Danny’s unlucky because there are some very good 10s about,” said Haskell. “It must be frustrating for him because he would get into most teams or most squads. I think he certainly has the skill-set, the attitude now and the ability to perform.”

Cipriani, though, will still have to work his way past George Ford, Owen Farrell and Stephen Myler if he intends to be England’s first-choice at this year’s World Cup, while Billy Vunipola remains the favourite to start at no 8 ahead of Easter against Wales. By offering the two outsiders a glimmer of opportunity, however, Lancaster has already ensured an extra edge to training when England gather in Bagshot next week.

The Welsh game, meanwhile, looks set to arrive too soon for Dan Cole after Leicester’s director of rugby Richard Cockerill revealed the prop would not be fit for Leicester’s final Heineken Cup pool game against Ulster in Belfast. Cole is still nursing a sore foot and missed the bulk of last year with a neck problem.

“The likelihood is that he will probably be fit for the Cardiff game in the LV= Cup on the weekend of Feb6/7,” reported Cockerill, who also confirmed Mathew Tait will join Bayonne this summer. “Whether he plays for us or against Wales is Stuart Lancaster’s call. Coley won’t have played any rugby between then and now. He is fit but it’s just about making sure his foot isn’t sore.”

Lancaster will also be monitoring the Saxons game closely, hopeful that players such as Exeter’s Henry Slade and Dave Ewers and Wasps’

Christian Wade and Joe Simpson will seize the chance to boost their reputations. Burgess, though, will inevitably top the bill and it is no secret the management would love the cross-code recruit to force himself into the World Cup frame.

England training squad for Wales (probable): Backs: M Brown (Harlequins), A Goode (Saracens), J May (Gloucester), A Watson (Bath), J Nowell (Exeter), L Burrell (Northampton), J Joseph (Bath), B Barritt (Saracens), K Eastmond (Bath), G Ford (Bath), O Farrell (Saracens), S Myler (Northampton), D Cipriani (Sale), D Care (Harlequins), R Wigglesworth (Saracens), B Youngs (Leicester).

Forwards: D Hartley (Northampton), R Webber (Bath), T Youngs (Leicester), A Corbisiero (Northampton), J Marler (Harlequins), M Vunipola (Saracens), K Brookes (Newcastle), D Wilson (Bath), D Attwood (Bath), G Kitchener (Leicester), G Kruis (Saracens), G Parling (Leicester), C Clark (Northampton), J Haskell (Wasps), C Robshaw (Harlequins), T Wood (Northampton), N Easter (Harlequins), B Vunipola (Saracens).