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Flood loses place in England Rugby squad

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Toby Flood, the skipper of the Aviva Premiership Rugby Football Union club and the reigning champions the Leicester Tigers has become the only players from the champions to lose his place in the newly formed Elite Player Squad for the England Rugby Team as announced by Stuart Lancaster, the national team boss in London.

The 28 year old is expected to sever his ties with Leicester this summer and move to France for a much more lucrative payday and with the policy of England not picking any players playing rugby overseas, finds his place taken over by his former protégé at the Tigers George Ford, who will replace him in the Elite Player Squad as Lancaster starts planning for the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

The England Rugby Team revealed that he had several meetings with Flood with the last couple of months as he tried to persuade him to change his mind about moving overseas and commit himself to England in order to be eligible for selection to the England team for the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

Lancaster revealed that he told Flood he would really love it if he stayed in England and played for England but admitted that the player had made a lifestyle choice and he has to respect his decision as well.

Elsewhere, all the other Leicester Tigers players including Geoff Parling, Manu Tuilagi, Tom and Ben Youngs as well as Dan Cole all kept their places in the Elite Player Squad, making them eligible for selection for the England Rugby Team.

The Tigers provide the bulk of the players for the England national team alongside the likes of Harlequins FC and Saracens FC and with the loss of Flood, England will face an uphill task in the competition where he has a lot of experience.

Ashton is not good enough

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Dan Luger, the Rugby World Cup winning winner for the England Rugby Team has slammed laid into current England international Chris Ashton stating that he has lost that X-factor that his game had.

Luger scored 24 tries for the England national team during his five year spell with the national team during which time he managed 38 caps for his country and he seemed absolutely at a loss regarding Stuart Lancaster, the national team’s boss decision to persist with the Saracens FC player who has managed to score just three tries during his last twenty test appearances for England.

The former Northampton Saints player was given starts in all three of the England Rugby Team’s autumn internationals but there was a distinct possibility that he would make way during the team’s second match against Argentina but injuries to Marland Yarde as well as Christian Wade prompted Lancaster to start with the pairing of Ashton and Ben Foden on the two flanks and continued with the same partnership in the match against New Zealand as well.

But according to the former England man Luger, England should start looking for alternatives on the wing, adding that he doesn’t quite understand how Ashton is still in the squad. Luger also mentioned that Ashton burst on to the scene a few years back and did quite well but he hasn’t delivered on the promise and that is not acceptable.

Luger further mentioned that Ashton doesn’t have the X-factor anymore. He stated that the England Rugby Team flanker doesn’t break tackle and he can’t remember the last time he saw him break a tackle. Luger also mentioned that if Chris Ashton is the best option for the team at the moment, then it is a worrying sign because he just cannot defend while tracking back.