England call up Burrell and Myler for tour

England are to add Northampton’s Luther Burrell and Stephen Myler to their squad for their South American tour after Alex Goode and Joel Tomkins were ruled out through injury.

Goode and Tomkins have shoulder and ankle injuries respectively and will miss Sunday’s clash with the Barbarians at Twickenham and the trip to Uruguay and Argentina.

Uncapped backs Burrell and Myler will link up with England after Saturday’s Aviva Premiership final against Leicester.

“Luther and Stephen have played well in the second half of the season and have a great opportunity to put a marker down for the future on this tour,” England head coach Stuart Lancaster said.

Goode and Tomkins were due to play against the Barbarians following Saracens’ elimination from the Premiership play-offs.

“Our commiserations go to Alex Goode and Joel Tomkins,” Lancaster said. “It’s disappointing that they have to miss out but they’ve had excellent seasons and I’m sure they’ll be back in contention next season.”

Nine tourists are appearing in Saturday’s final between Leicester and Northampton, so Lancaster has called up Exeter scrum-half Haydn Thomas and Sale lock Kearnan Myall to assist in the build-up to the Barbarians. “It’s good to have Haydn and Kearnan involved in the senior England environment ahead of what should be a great game against a very strong Barbarians team,” Lancaster said. “They have both played well recently and deserve this opportunity.”

England name their side for the Barbarians at lunchtime on Friday. They play a South American XV in Montevideo on 2 June before Tests against the Pumas in Salta and Buenos Aires on 8 and 15 June.