Consistent Burrell is ‘genuine England contender’

Huddersfield-born Luther Burrell is in the frame to play a starring role in England’s back line in next month’s Autumn 
Internationals at Twickenham.
Stuart Lancaster with England players Sarah Hunter, Marland Yarde, Brad Barritt and school children during the launch of the new England rugby union kit for the 2013-14 season held at Bruntcliffe School, Morley, LeedsStuart Lancaster with England players Sarah Hunter, Marland Yarde, Brad Barritt and school children during the launch of the new England rugby union kit for the 2013-14 season held at Bruntcliffe School, Morley, Leeds
Stuart Lancaster with England players Sarah Hunter, Marland Yarde, Brad Barritt and school children during the launch of the new England rugby union kit for the 2013-14 season held at Bruntcliffe School, Morley, Leeds

The former Leeds Carnegie centre has excelled for Northampton Saints in the opening month of the season, and after being taken by Stuart Lancaster on the squad that toured Argentina in the summer the 25-year-old is favourite to replace the injured Brad Barritt in the No 12 shirt.

Burrell’s Northampton team-mate Sam Dickinson – who spent two-and-a-half years at Rotherham Titans before moving to the Premiership – is also in Lancaster’s thinking after a dominant string of performances at No 8.

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Pocklington-born Rob Webber has also caught the eye at hooker. He captained England in the non-cap Test with the Barbarians at the end of May and is in the equation to be a part of Lancaster’s leadership group this autumn and beyond.

All those decisions will be made after England’s latest week-long training camp in Leeds, which runs from October 21.

It is the third time that the former Carnegie player and coach will have brought the national team up to West Yorkshire in what is becoming an established part of his preparations for big series.

England’s autumn campaign begins against Australia on 
November 2 and continues against Argentina seven days later and the world champions New Zealand on November 16.

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Lancaster has nine days to work with his squad and settle any selection issues before England square up to the side beaten by the British and Irish Lions in the summer.

“When you come to selection you take a number of factors into consideration, and I leave my selection until I’ve coached my players myself,” said Lancaster.

“We’ve got a camp in Leeds and when you get them in camp the selections and combinations become fairly obvious by the end of the camp.

“I do trust what we do in camp to help make my mind up.”

Burrell has scored three tries in four games for Northampton having returned from Argentina buoyed by his first taste of England action.

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He made his debut for Leeds Carnegie at the age of 19 and spent four seasons at the club.

He also played rugby league as a junior for Huddersfield and Leeds Rhinos.

The decimation of England’s midfield pairing of Barritt and Manu Tuilagi has created the opportunity and the 17-stone back looks set to face off against Billy Twelvetrees for Barritt’s position.

Lancaster, who coached Burrell at Leeds, said: “To lose Brad and Manu in the space of a week was really disappointing because they’re high quality players and we’re still trying to build that consistency of selection, while still maintaining opportunity for others to come in.

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“It has meant that we’ve got to go and look at other options, which is a good thing in my mind.

“Billy had a great first Test in Argentina and he benefitted from that call-up to the Lions’ squad.

“Luther Burrell on form has been the pick of the inside centres so far.

“He’s shown what I already knew having coached him. He’s got better distribution than people give him credit for and he’s got a good defensive game now.

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“Northampton deserve great credit for what they have done in terms of developing his conditioning and his mindset.

“One of the things I had to talk to Luther about was consistency, and in all the games he’s played he’s shown that level of consistency which means he’s a genuine contender.

“To win at the highest level you’ve got to have a combination of pace, power, skill and physicality, so we’ve got to get that balance right in our backline.

“So a player like Luther, who is beginning to show some of that physicality, is going to be important.”

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Back-row forward Dickinson, who was a big favourite at Rotherham, was not named by Lancaster in his initial 33-man elite player squad in the summer, but has performed so well that he may force the head coach to bend the rules to accommodate him.

“Part of the challenge is picking an EPS squad in July and August and then someone like Sam Dickinson comes along and has a great September,” said Lancaster, whose first-choice No 8 Ben Morgan is playing well but in a struggling Gloucester side.

“In terms of building a team for 2015 and beyond, I’m happy with what we’ve got at No 8.

“Someone like Sam Dickinson would be there or thereabouts for the Saxons.”

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On selection overall, Lancaster said: “Selection now will be driven by consistency over time. We’ve got to try and get away from the one great game. Players need to demonstrate over a consistent period of time that they can deliver at the highest level.”

Lancaster was speaking at the launch of England’s new home kit for the 2013-14 campaign at Bruntcliffe School in Morley, Leeds.

Bruntcliffe – which reports great interest in union, particularly among girls – is one of 104 state schools that has joined the Rugby Football Union’s All Schools’ Programme which is designed to create a lasting legacy for the development of the game beyond the next World Cup.

One hundred schools are being signed up per year with the target set at 750 by the 2019 World Cup.

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“Bruntcliffe have done a really good job to get rugby union up and running in a state school,” said Lancaster, who as a Leeds man knows the difficulty the sport faces in competing against football and rugby league in the city.

“It’s a testimony to where we want to take the game and how we want to connect with the grass roots and the rugby public.”