Paul misses out on Woodward's outsize squad

The main problem with naming an élite national squad the size of the old Soviet army is that the few outsiders are left wholly without consolation. If Henry Paul, rugby league legend turned union nonentity, is in a trough of despond right now, a handful of others – the England seven-a-side captain Phil Greening, last season's Premiership hot-shot Mark Cueto and the much talked-about London Irish flanker Declan Danaher – will know how he feels. When you cannot break into a party of 53, a place in a Test squad of 22 must seem distant indeed.

Clive Woodward, the England manager, celebrated Wednesday night's belated signing of a player release agreement between the Twickenham top brass and the Premiership clubs by springing an early selection on an unsuspecting public. It tells a tale of sorts. Only three hookers – Steve Thompson, Dorian West and the rejuvenated Mark Regan – are involved, while Woodward has gone to town with his second-rows and midfielders, identifying seven locks and nine centres as worthy of further investigation. It is not difficult to see where his predicaments lay.

All those who participated in the excellent victory over Argentina in Buenos Aires last June have held their places. In addition, Woodward has summoned the Leeds back Dan Scarborough, the gifted young Leicester centre Ollie Smith and the London Irish prop Mike Worsley, whose relative public anonymity contrasts sharply with the esteem in which he is held by specialist coaches up and down the country. Kevin Sorrell, the worker bee of the Saracens midfield, is also included, as are three Lions tourists incapacitated by long-term injury: Matthew Perry, Iain Balshaw and Dan Luger.

But inevitably, the absentees provide the news value. Paul, lured across codes at considerable expense and greeted by the rugby equivalent of a 50-gun salute, is looking increasingly like a gifted sportsman in the wrong sport. His value to the England sevens squad is beyond question, but there is no obvious sign of his mastering the arts of the 15-man game. An early return to league cannot be ruled out.

Greening, a World Cup hooker three years ago, is easily talented enough to be a World Cup hooker again next autumn. Woodward does not trust him, though: for a start, he is injury-prone; when he is fit, he concedes penalties by the gross. His only realistic target now is a good run of form at Wasps and a place in the Six Nations reckoning come February. By then, though, the cussed Regan may be in pole position to challenge Thompson for the starting position.

Woodward will work with his squad next Monday and Tuesday, the first in a number of get-togethers leading into the 2003 World Cup. The frequency of these gatherings was the source of serious disharmony between the red rose hierarchy and the top-flight clubs, with the former claiming that the entire World Cup venture was being undermined and the latter moaning about aspersions being cast on coaching standards around the country. Now that a deal has been struck, another prolonged piece of rugby politics has entered the past tense.

Across the water in Ireland, the Lions hooker Keith Wood has withdrawn from tomorrow's friendly international with Romania in Limerick following the sudden death yesterday of his 41-year-old brother, Gordon, from a heart-related illness. Anthony Foley, the Munster No 8, will captain the Irish in Wood's stead, with Shane Byrne of Leinster filling the hole in the front row.

England training squad

(at Pennyhill Park, Bagshot, 9-10 September)

Backs: G Appleford (London Irish), K Bracken (Saracens), M Catt (Bath), P Christophers (Bristol), B Cohen (Northampton), M Dawson (Northampton), A Gomarsall (Gloucester), W Greenwood (Harlequins), A Healey (Leicester), C Hodgson (Sale), M Horak (London Irish), B Johnston (Saracens), J Lewsey (Wasps), J Noon (Newcastle), J Robinson (Sale), D Scarbrough (Leeds), J Simpson-Daniel (Gloucester), O Smith (Leicester), K Sorrell (Saracens), M Stephenson (Newcastle), T Stimpson (Leicester), B(Bath), J Wilkinson (Newcastle). Forwards: P Anglesea (Sale), N Back (Leicester), S Borthwick (Bath), A Codling (Harlequins), M Corry (Leicester), L Dallaglio (Wasps), D Flatman (Saracens), J Forrester (Gloucester), D Grewcock (Bath), R Hill (Saracens), M Johnson (Leicester), B Kay (Leicester), J Leonard (Harlequins), L Moody (Leicester), R Morris (Northampton), T Palmer (Leeds), M Regan (Leeds), G Rowntree (Leicester), A Sanderson (Sale), S Shaw (Wasps), S Thompson (Northampton), P Vickery (Gloucester), D West (Leicester), J White (Bristol), T Woodman (Gloucester), J Worsley (Wasps), M Worsley (London Irish).