Young Roses in bloom
Last updated: 7th March 2008
Ashton: side is evolving
The team itself is actually evolving a lot more quickly than I thought it would do, but for me that makes it all the more exciting.
Brian Ashton
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Brian Ashton told The Rugby Club of his excitement at throwing a crop of young stars into England's Six Nations team.
Ashton named a number of relatively inexperienced players like Danny Cipriani, Tom Croft and Richard Wigglesworth in his starting line-up for Saturday's clash with Scotland.
And while Cipriani has subsequently been dropped for "inappropriate behaviour", Ashton insists he is thrilled to see what the nation's emerging talent can do.
The England coach was criticised for standing by some of his senior stars after the World Cup in France, but many of those players have been replaced due to a combination of injuries and poor form and Ashton admits his young guns are taking their chances sooner than he had anticipated.
He told The Rugby Club: "We've got some very talented young players, there's no doubt about that, and how good they're going to be is very difficult to predict.
"One or two have been thrown in at the deep end like Tom Croft in Paris last week and now he's in the starting XV this week. He handled himself creditably in France and I'm hoping he'll do a very good job in Scotland too.
"The mentality of these younger players is that they want to play rugby in its broadest sense, not necessarily in the traditional England way. I'm very happy to let them go.
"The team itself is actually evolving a lot more quickly than I thought it would do. I talked long and hard in January when we announced the EPS squad about the continuity, stability and experience from the World Cup.
"Through injury and a slight lack of form, some of those players have started to move out of the side and other, younger players have started to move in and we're actually going up to Scotland with a relatively inexperienced side in some areas of the team.
"But for me that makes it all the more exciting."
Fresh blood
One of those young players, Leicester flanker Croft, is set to make his full international debut on Saturday in place of James Haskell and says it is time for England's "new blood" to be given a chance.
And while he is full of admiration for the players that took England to the World Cup final last November, he says it is the younger players who will carry England into the next tournament in four years time.
He said: "We did very well at the World Cup just gone but I think its time to start bringing in new fresh blood and all credit to the coaches, they have started to do that.
"We are at the very start of a journey; it's a four-year plan going forward to the next World Cup with numerous Six Nations in between.
"We need to keep building on performances, we started that against France with a great team effort and hopefully we can build into the Scotland game."
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