Heads roll as England make a fresh start

The new-look England squad now look north to Murrayfield, where they will be put to the test on 4 February by a Scotland side who will still feel the hurt of their Rugby World Cup exit at the hands of England in Auckland.

After a desperate campaign in New Zealand that ran into trouble off the field and then ended in the quater-finals, England have dropped Mike Tindall, Nick Easter and Mark Cueto for the RBS Six Nations, while Delon Armitage and Matt Banahan are relegated to the England Saxons squad.

There is no place in either squad for Shontayne Hape, while Simon Shaw and James Haskell were ineligible for selection under Rugby Football Union rules after signing for overseas clubs.

On top of that, England’s World Cup captain Lewis Moody, Jonny Wilkinson and Steve Thompson have all retired.

Owen Farrell and his Saracens team-mate Brad Barritt both receive their first senior call-ups, along with Northampton scrum-half Lee Dickson and Harlequins centre Jordan Turner-Hall.

Northampton provide a quarter of the squad with uncapped loose-forwards Phil Dowson and Calum Clark taking the Saints’ contingent to eight.

Harlequins prop Joe Marler and Wasps hooker Rob Webber are both included along with Ben Morgan, the Scarlets number eight who pledged his allegiance to England after turning down an approach from Wales.

Mouritz Botha, Charlie Sharples, Chris Robshaw and Joe Simpson will all be looking to add to the single cap they won under Martin Johnson’s regime. “It is about a new era for English rugby,” said Lancaster, who is a former Scotland Under 19 and Scottish Students internationalist. “I always felt that January 2012 was going to be a defining moment about where we are going in the future.

“Hopefully with the selection we have made, we have picked a squad that is talented and excited and committed to getting back to where we want to be at the top of the game.

“We want to use this Six Nations to develop the players and a leadership group that is strong, that wants to be the best and beat the best.

“We think it is a tremendous opportunity to build a squad which has potential for now and for the future.

“We have a fantastic opportunity here, a new group who have been desperate for this chance. We have to pull together as a team pretty quickly.”

Toby Flood is the most experienced member of the squad with 46 caps, although he is set to miss the start of the Six Nations with a knee ligament injury.

Lancaster will wait until the end of England’s training week in Leeds, which begins on 23 January, before deciding who to appoint as his captain. One bookmaker has installed Dylan Hartley as favourite.

“Dylan Hartley, Chris Robshaw, Ben Youngs, Tom Wood, Toby Flood - they are the type of names I am thinking about who are going to become the future leaders of this England team; good characters, good people, talented players,” Lancaster added.

“The ultimate aim is for the players to control the culture and drive the programme and we will be giving them every encouragement to do that.”

Lancaster’s main aim for England’s training camp will be to instil that culture and eradicate any hangover that exists from the World Cup.

Harlequins scrum-half Danny Care had been in line for a recall after missing the World Cup through injury, but he has been suspended for the duration of the Six Nations following his arrest on suspicion of drink driving.

Andrew Sheridan and Richard Wigglesworth were not considered due to long-term injury and Lancaster has already had to make some temporary changes to his squad.

Bath lock Dave Attwood, Saracens full-back Alex Goode, Leicester second row Geoff Parling and Gloucester centre Henry Trinder will join the elite squad as temporary replacements for Flood, Courtney Lawes, Louis Deacon and Manu Tuilagi, who are all set to miss the start of the Six Nations.

Tindall’s 75-cap Test career appears to be over after he was left out. The Gloucester centre was fined £25,000 by the Rugby Football Union and removed from England’s elite group earlier this season following his off-field behaviour at the World Cup - a drunken night in a dwarf-themed Queenstown bar, where he was pictured with a blonde woman just weeks after his weding to Zara Phillips, the Queen’s granddaughter.

Tindall subsequently had the fine reduced by £10,000 on appeal and gained a squad reinstatement. He claimed he had been made “a scapegoat” after what many people viewed as a heavy-handed punishment.

But together with the likes of fellow World Cup performers Cueto and Easter, the 33-year-old now finds himself ditched from England contention.

“It seems to crop up in the media, people discussing whether Mike can cope with it or not,” Gloucester head coach Bryan Redpath said, when asked about Tindall’s England fall from grace.

“We just need to get on with that. Mike is a senior player, he is here – he is not involved with any international teams – and his focus is solely here.”