STATEMENT: England boss Steve Borthwick explains his shock axing of centre Henry Slade

Shortly after the squad was named, Steve Borthwick was requested to provide an explanation for his selection choices.

“There were a number of difficult decisions as you have to take the squad down to 33 players and we have a lot of talented players in the squad,” he began. “So by that nature, quality players miss out on the 33.

“Henry has been excellent throughout the training camp. He is clearly disappointed. The message to the players that have not been selected is to be ready to come into the squad. We know that there will be changes.

“The last World Cup shows that with bumps and bruises, the average is nearly two players a squad in the last number of tournaments (are changed), so what I have asked every player who hasn’t been selected is to be ready to go.

On axing Slade he confirmed the reports yesterday that Joe Marchant made the squad ahead of Slade based on his versatility: "Now there are good players competing for each of these decisions and I have said this many times, I decided you will have three players in the key positions, across front row, scrum-half, fly-half for the obvious reasons.

“What that means is that in other areas of the team, you need to have positional flexibility, you need to make some compromise. That is always in the balance in the selection process.

England captain Owen Farrell, who shared a room with Slade the last four weeks, admitted he hadn't spoke to his teammate over the axing.

 “I have not spoke to him yet,” said Farrell.

“I shared a room with Henry for the past four weeks so I definitely will be in touch with him.

“But listen, there is a lot of good boys in the squad, there is a lot of competition, a lot of competitiveness day in, day out so I think we have got and great squad and people will need to be used over the course of this next 12 weeks.

“It is not going to stay the same, people need to stay ready, people need to make sure that they are ready if anything happens and them boys that have just missed out have been a big part in this preparation.”

The 2023 England World Cup squad is made up of 19 forwards and 14 backs, totals over 1,400 England appearances, with an average age of 27. 17 players have previous Rugby World Cup experience.

Head coach Steve Borthwick has left out a number of big names, including Alex Dombrandt and Henry Slade.

Hooker Jamie Blamire has been part of the England set-up at both Under 18 and Under 20 level before his progress to the senior squad.

The Newcastle Falcons front row helped the Under 20 side to a Grand Slam in 2017 and reached the final of the of the World Rugby U20 Championship later that year. Hailing from Cumbria, he played for Tynedale before he joined the Falcons’ academy and made his debut for the club in 2017. He was named Newcastle’s academy player of the year in the 2018. Blamire received his first call-up to England’s senior squad in the summer of 2021.

England fans will remember Alex Dombrandt from his outstanding performance in the Quilter Cup game against the Barbarians at Twickenham.

Making a first outing for the England XV side, he crossed the whitewash twice in a Man of the Match performance where his powerful ball carrying and deft off-loading skills were on show. Dombrandt made his Test debut against Canada in July 2021. In 2022, Dombrandt scored a try in England's 23-19 win over Wales at Twickenham in the Six Nations. He was included in Steve Borthwick's 36-player squad for the 2023 edition of the tournament.

Jonny Hill made his Test debut for England in their delayed Six Nations fixture away to Italy in 2020.

The second row began his career at Luctonians and a chance trial at 17 saw him move to Hartpury College where he began playing in National League Two south. From here he was picked up by Gloucester and his form saw him receive an England Under 20 call-up. In his time with Exeter Chiefs, Hill was included in the squads that reached five straight Premiership finals. He was called up by England for the first time ahead of the 2018 tour to South Africa, and again in October 2020. Hill scored a try in England's 41-18 victory over Italy in the 2021 Six Nations. He joined Sale Sharks ahead of the 2022/23 season, and was included in Steve Borthwick's squad for the 2023 Guinness Six Nations.

A forthright runner, he was the Player of the Match in the 57-14 victory over Italy in March 2019, having moved to Bath from London Irish that season.

He previously appeared for England U18 and in 2017 shared in England’s first U20 Grand Slam in six years. Educated at Bushey Academy, he was initially with Old Merchant Taylors before joining the London Irish Academy and has scored 18 tries in 53 Premiership matches.

Jonny well and truly announced himself on the international stage with an extraordinary maiden Test try against New Zealand in November 2014.

His long-range run in the opening minutes illustrated his pace, panache, shimmy, check and go. Injury prevented him from playing in the subsequent Six Nations and touring Australia in June 2016 But he returned after 13 months' absence with a try against South Africa at Twickenham that November. He crossed four times during the 2018 Six Nations, including twice in victory over Wales, and was selected by Eddie Jones for the summer tour to South Africa. Jonny was the standout performer against the Springboks in the three-Test series, finishing the top scorer with three tries, including the match-winning score in Cape Town. That form continued as he was top try scorer in the 2019 Six Nations as he crossed six times, and on the way to the 2019 Rugby World Cup final he crossed twice against Australia in the quarter-final on his 50th cap.

Henry made his senior debut against France at Twickenham, before earning a spot in England’s Rugby World Cup 2015 squad, where he featured in their final game against Uruguay - scoring a try.

Further caps followed for the 6ft 2in versatile back: Fiji and Argentina in November 2016, and a Six Nations outing against Italy in February 2017. Henry impressed on tour to Argentina in the summer of 2017, starting both matches, and faced the same opposition in the autumn internationals, claiming his second try against Samoa. In 2018 he was called up again to the summer tour where he started all three matches against South Africa, and again in early 2019, for all of England’s Six Nations fixtures. Henry recovered from injury to make the 2019 Rugby World Cup squad and came off the bench in the final. Recently, Slade was included in Steve Borthwick’s 36-player squad for the 2023 Guinness Six Nations Championship.