Stuart Lancaster cut an emotional figure as he insisted that his decision to select Sam Burgess in England’s World Cup squad ahead of Luther Burrell was taken on merit and does not represent the biggest gamble of his career.
The England head coach confirmed yesterday that Burgess had been fast-tracked into the 31-man squad just nine months and 19 matches after he switched codes and swapped South Sydney Rabbitohs for Bath.
Lancaster admitted shedding tears after informing Burrell, who he had coached since the centre was a promising 14-year-old in the Yorkshire Carnegie academy, that he was to be one of eight players cut from the training squad.
Burrell has been a regular fixture in the national squad for the past two years but was overtaken in the pecking order by Burgess and Henry Slade, the Exeter Chiefs playmaker, during England’s ten-week training camp.
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Graphic: England World Cup squad
“He’s picked on merit from what we’ve seen in the camp,” Lancaster said about Burgess. “He’s earned the right. I wouldn’t describe it as a gamble. I understand the size of this decision. I don’t see it as a risk, I think it is exciting.”
While Lancaster enjoyed the “priceless” reactions of Burgess and Slade on hearing the good news, imparting the bad was a tough experience, especially when he was delivering it to Burrell and Calum Clark, players he has known for many years.
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“It was very, very hard to tell Luther,” Lancaster said. “I know his mum and dad really well, but you have to make tough decisions that you feel are right for the team. There were no tantrums, just tears from me.”
Burgess and Slade made their debuts together in England’s 19-14 victory over France on August 15 and delivered performances to convince Lancaster that he could include them in his final squad. It is understood that senior players within the England squad also expressed their support for Burgess’s inclusion.
“They’ve absolutely trained the house down, impressed everyone and they made two debuts that I’ve not seen before,” Lancaster said, before addressing concerns expressed by Will Carling, among others, over Burgess’s defence.
“To win at this level, you need physicality, ball-players, finishers,” Lancaster said. “Sam is powerful, he reads defences very well and is a very aggressive tackler. One of his main attributes that goes unnoticed is that he runs effective lines.”
Kieran Brookes, George Kruis and Ben Morgan also won places in the final squad, at the expense of Alex Corbisiero — whose injury record counted against him — Dave Attwood and Nick Easter, while Jamie George was included as the third hooker.
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The decision to cut Danny Cipriani drew widespread criticism, but Lancaster responded by saying: “I appreciate the debate behind selection but now we’ve named the 31, with the country behind us and us pushing together as one team, I think we’ll be hard to beat.”