Strangest call-ups: The worst England XV of all-time - Page 2 of 5 - Ruck

Strangest call-ups: The worst England XV of all-time

Centre: Sam Burgess

England, who fast-tracked Burgess into their World Cup squad in defiance of logic, Bath and the player himself each shoulder varying degrees of blame for arguably the greatest cross-code flop in history. We’re not saying he was an awful player, but the whole thing was a complete disaster.


Winger: Lesley Vanikolo

The Volcano’ stormed onto the scene for Gloucester, doing something ridiculous like scoring five tries on his debut against Leeds, before qualifying for England on residency grounds. International honours followed, with Vainikolo making his England debut against Wales in 2008. However, he failed to bring his try-scoring form to the international scene and was quickly dropped from Martin Johnston’s squad after winning five caps.


Fly-half: Shane Geraghty 

Fly-half Geraghty made his England debut as a replacement against France in the 2007 Six Nations – carving through the French defence to create a crucial try for teammate Mike Tindall and kicking a penalty and a conversion in the 26-18 Twickenham triumph. However, the fact he has fallen into obscurity since, which makes this more of a more disappointed selection rather than poor performances.


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