England have called Gloucester duo Freddie Burns and Billy Twelvetrees into their training squad ahead of the opening Autumn International against Fiji at Twickenham.
rugbyweek
Burns has been called in to replaced Jordan Turner-Hall who will remain with Harlequins for medical treatment on an inflamed knee, while Twelvetrees joins the squad as temporary injury cover for Jonathan Joseph who has an ankle injury.
The addition of Burns and Twelvetrees takes the England training squad to thirty-six at Pennyhill Park and England Head Coach Stuart Lancaster said that they have been watching Burns and Twelvetrees.
“Freddie has been playing well in the Aviva Premiership and, with Jordan needing to stay at Harlequins for treatment, we are keen to have a look at him. ”
“JJ is continuing his recovery from an ankle injury and this is a good chance to get Billy in for training,” said Lancaster.
“As last week, George Robson and David Paice come in as an injury replacements for Courtney Lawes and Dylan Hartley. Both will be assessed and treated in camp and it is important that they stay with the squad as much as possible.
“We had a productive week at St George’s Park and got a lot of work done. Now we are back at Pennyhill we will sharpen our focus towards Fiji on Saturday.”
Current England training squad
Forwards (20)
Mouritz Botha (Saracens)
Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers)
Alex Corbisiero (London Irish)
James Haskell (London Wasps)
Phil Dowson (Northampton Saints)
Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints)
Tom Johnson (Exeter Chiefs)
Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints)
Joe Marler (Harlequins)
Ben Morgan (Gloucester Rugby)
Tom Palmer (London Wasps)
Geoff Parling (Leicester Tigers)
David Paice (London Irish)
Chris Robshaw (Harlequins, capt)
George Robson (Harlequins)
Mako Vunipola (Saracens)
Thomas Waldrom (Leicester Tigers)
David Wilson (Bath Rugby)
Tom Wood (Northampton Saints)
Tom Youngs (Leicester Tigers)
Backs (16)
Anthony Allen (Leicester Tigers)
Chris Ashton (Saracens)
Brad Barritt (Saracens)
Mike Brown (Harlequins)
Freddie Burns (Gloucester Rugby)
Danny Care (Harlequins)
Lee Dickson (Northampton Saints)
Owen Farrell (Saracens)
Toby Flood (Leicester Tigers)
Alex Goode (Saracens)
Jonathan Joseph (London Irish)
Ugo Monye (Harlequins)
Charlie Sharples (Gloucester Rugby)
Manusamoa Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers)
Billy Twelvetrees (Gloucester Rugby)
Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers)
Thanks for putting this one and the one about Ferris up GBS, I had posted about both sets of players joining up this weekend but didn’t get round to doing an article. I also at the time of posting about Burns mentioned that I’ve heard he is very good will repost what I’d said here and see what anyone else thinks : Freddie Burns and Billy Twelvetrees, both Gloucester players, have been called up to England squad, Burns replaces Jordan Turner-Hall who has an inflamed knee and Twelvetrees (inside centre) is in for Jonathan Joseph who has an ankle injury. Have heard lots of good things about flyhalf Burns so much so that he could probably have considered himself unlucky not to have been in the squad in first place, not yet seen him play though. Burns is the leading points scorer in Aviva Premiership so far this season and is only 22. It seems that England are quite well covered at flyhalf for the future with Toby Flood and Owen Farrell already there while Flood’s understudy at Leicester George Ford is also meant to be very talented even if he didn’t have a good day yesterday against Northampton and missed 5 out of his 9 kicks to posts, he is only 19 and has already done well last season in semi-final and final for Leicester.