England name Burgess in Rugby World Cup squad

England head coach Stuart Lancaster has named his 31-man squad for the 2015
Rugby World Cup and included one-cap Rugby League convert Sam Burgess.

The 31-strong group of 17 forwards and 14 backs – drawn from eight Premiership
clubs – will open their campaign against Fiji at Twickenham Stadium on
Friday 18 September.

Despite only playing for 70 minutes at Test level and 10 games at centre Burgess
was included in the squad ahead of Luther Burrell.

Most World Cup winning teams have had teams with vast experience but Burgess is one of three players who have been included with only
one cap to their name as Henry Slade and Jamie George are also in the squad having played one test.

In the forwards Lancaster decided against including Nick Easter who would have
been in his third world cup and instead Ben Morgan who has only just returned
from injury has been included.

All of the fringe players such as Danny Cipriani who also missed out are only an
injury away so they could return to the squad by the end of the tournament.

Speaking about his selections Lancaster said: “It’s really positive
that we have such depth and options to choose from. Selection wasn’t easy
and it is tough to leave anyone out but it’s important to stress that
the players not in this group are still part of our wider squad and could come
in at any point.

“After ten weeks in camp we have made our final selection of players
and we believe we have a great group to take us into the tournament. With three
weeks to go before we play Fiji we feel we are in good shape as we head into
next Saturday’s game against Ireland.

“As the excitement builds around the tournament we are looking forward
to the country getting behind England and we know this group of players will
represent the nation with pride.”

England 2015 Rugby World Cup squad
Props:
Kieran Brookes (Northampton Saints, 10 caps)
Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers, 51 caps)
Joe Marler (Harlequins, 32 caps)
Mako Vunipola (Saracens, 22 caps)
David Wilson (Bath Rugby, 43 caps)

Hookers:
Jamie George (Saracens, 1 cap)
Rob Webber (Bath Rugby, 13 caps)
Tom Youngs (Leicester Tigers, 23 caps)

Second rows:
George Kruis (Saracens, 8 caps)
Joe Launchbury (Wasps, 23 caps)
Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints, 39 caps)
Geoff Parling (Exeter Chiefs, 24 caps)

Back rows:
James Haskell (Wasps, 60 caps)
Ben Morgan (Gloucester Rugby, 28 caps)
Chris Robshaw (captain, Harlequins, 38 caps)
Billy Vunipola (Saracens, 18 caps)
Tom Wood (Northampton Saints, 37 caps)

Scrum halves:
Danny Care (Harlequins, 52 caps)
Richard Wigglesworth (Saracens, 22 caps)
Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers, 48 caps)

Fly halves:
Owen Farrell (Saracens, 30 caps)
George Ford (Bath Rugby, 12 caps)

Centres:
Brad Barritt (Saracens, 22 caps)
Sam Burgess (Bath Rugby, 1 cap)
Jonathan Joseph (Bath Rugby, 12 caps)
Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs, 1 cap)

Back three:
Mike Brown (Harlequins, 38 caps)
Alex Goode (Saracens, 18 caps)
Jonny May (Gloucester Rugby, 15 caps)
Jack Nowell (Exeter Chiefs, 9 caps)
Anthony Watson (Bath Rugby, 10 caps)