Tony Smith has offered fresh hope to England's World Cup flops as he prepares his new-look squad to take on France in Paris.
England coach has refused to rule out returns for missing men
Tony Smith has offered fresh hope to England's World Cup flops as he prepares his new-look squad to take on France in Paris.
Jamie Peacock will continue as captain for next weekend's match, but he is
one of only six survivors from the disastrous World Cup campaign.
Leeds Rhinos winger Ryan Hall, Wigan half-back Sam Tomkins and St Helens on-loan hooker Scott Moore are the three uncapped players named, while the familiar faces of Martin Gleeson, Paul Wellens, Leon Pryce, Rob Burrow, Mark Calderwood, Rob Purdham, Mickey Higham and Jon Wilkin have all been overlooked.
Thinking
Smith has not ruled out a return for the World Cup contingent in the future, though, and has dismissed suggestions his squad represents a change in direction for the team.
"I'm very excited about the squad for a number of reasons," he told
Sky Sports News.
"It's a very big forward pack and we feel we need to be strong up front to give some of our youthful backline the chance to show the ability they've already shown at club level this year and a few of them have already shown internationally.
"It's certainly not out with the old and in with the new, though, there's quite a few experienced people there like Jamie Peacock and Adrian Morley.
"For those people that have been there before and have missed out certainly the door is open for them still, but it's down to these guys to prove themselves and maybe secure places for the future - that still will be determined by form later in the year at club level.
"The squad's certainly not experimental as it's been described by some people. I think the people that are there are there because they deserve to be there on form."
Focus
The friendly offers the chance to assess England's resources and the opposition ahead of their meeting in the Four Nations tournament - which also includes Australia and New Zealand - in the autumn, but Smith has emphasised the importance of focusing on the job at hand.
"We're going into this game very confident," Smith added. "It's of enormous importance.
"We're representing the country here and we're very determined to do a great job.
"We're just going to deal with our next game and after that we'll turn our focus to our next opponents, but that's later on down the track.
"We'll treat this match with the respect that it deserves."
