Danny Cipriani could make his first England appearance under Eddie Jones in the No 15 jersey after he was named among the full-backs in the squad to face the Barbarians on Sunday. Nathan Hughes will also get the chance to stake a claim for the South Africa tour after he and Cipriani were among six losing Premiership semi-finalists selected in Jones’s 35-man squad.
Cipriani won his last England cap in a 2015 World Cup warmup match with an eye-catching cameo against France from full-back and it is a position he often played in his first spell with Wasps. Jones said when he named Cipriani in the touring party as an inside back that “I’ve seen him play 15 well as a younger guy and there’s no reason he couldn’t do that now”, and his selection among the full-backs for Sunday’s match suggests Jones will try him there at some point against the invitational side.
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Hughes, meanwhile, came through 66 minutes against Saracens on Saturday in his first appearance since sustaining a knee injury during the Six Nations. He was not selected in the 34-man squad to tour South Africa earlier this month but has the chance to prove his fitness to Jones this week and he may benefit from the absence of his 21-year-old Wasps team-mate Jack Willis, who was originally due to go to South Africa before suffering a nasty-looking knee injury on Saturday. Willis’s omission from Monday’ssquad only adds to the likelihood he will miss the tour and with continued question marks over the fitness of Billy Vunipola, Hughes’s hopes of a late call-up to face the Springboks would appear to be strengthened.
Elliot Daly and Joe Launchbury are also among the losing semi-finalists added to the squad but will not arrive until Wednesday and Thursday respectively, suggesting they are unlikely to be involved on Sunday. Hughes is due arrive in camp on Tuesday.
Marcus Smith is also part of the 35-man group, having also been named on Monday in England’s squad for the World Under-20 Championship which begins in France at the end of the month. The Harlequins fly-half, who is not due to tour South Africa, is among the standout names in the junior squad along with Ben Curry, Ben Loader and Gabriel Ibitoye, who like Smith has been previously called into the senior squad as an apprentice.