Wednesday 26 August 2015 23:11, UK
England backs coach Andy Farrell says selection for the World Cup squad will be based on performance during the summer training camp as much as in the recent warm-up matches against France.
The hosts will name their 31-man squad on Thursday lunchtime and Danny Cipriani is understood to be one of the eight players who will be excluded from the current group.
The Sale fly-half impressed when he came off the bench on Saturday night during the 25-20 defeat to France in Paris, scoring a try as England mounted a late fightback.
However, when he made a few general points about selection on Wednesday, ahead of the squad announcement and not at all specific to Cipriani's situation, Farrell pointed out that several factors would be in play.
"Twenty minutes of rugby cannot be the sole reason you pick someone, or even sixty minutes of rugby that doesn't go so well," said the backs coach.
"It has to be what's right for the group.
"It has to be what you've learned about the person, his character, his skill levels, his leadership within the group, it has to be a wide range of scenarios. You can't just come down to twenty minutes of rugby.
"Obviously, you'd like to see them on the pitch and how cohesively they fit into a team performance, but you can't just go on that one piece of evidence.
"Different situations present themselves in every minute of the game. If Danny gets a chance to show what he does, that might be completely different to what happens the week afterwards.
"You could say (Saracens full-back) Alex Goode could come on and do the same in the last twenty minutes. Could he? Probably. He could organise and do something.
"It's just circumstances, different situations that you have to weigh up, so you can't go off sections of games.
"You have to go off the facts that you know from working with these guys day in and day out. It's pretty unfair if selection has to be based solely on what happens in the Test match arena."
