Four foreign-born players named in England squad, including Georgia and Philippines stars

The squad, which does not include players from Gallagher Premiership semi-finalists, Leicester Tigers, Northampton Saints, Sale Sharks, and Saracens, assembled in Bagshot on Monday 12 June as England begin their preparations for the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France which starts in September. 

“We are excited to get into camp and begin the first phase of our preparations,” said Borthwick. “The World Cup is full of top quality teams and high quality players, and we’re relishing the challenge in front of us. That all starts today at Pennyhill Park.

“We have lots to get through before our first summer series fixture in August against Wales in Cardiff, so the hard work starts now. We are looking forward to it.”

In addition, a number of playing currently returning from injury, including Billy Vunipola, also joined up with the squad

Sam Underhill, flanker, USA

Val Rapava-Ruskin, prop, Georgia

Marcus Smith, fly-half, Harlequins

Billy Vunipola, number 8, Saracens

Rob Herring, hooker, South Africa

Finlay Bealham, prop, Australia

Joe McCarthy, lock, USA

Kieran Treadwell, lock, England

Jamison Gibson-Park, scrum-half, New Zealand

Bundee Aki, centre, New Zealand

Mack Hansen, winger, Australia

James Lowe, winger, New Zealand

The 41-plaayer group will be led by captain Jamie Ritchie and will be trimmed to the requisite 33-player list ahead of the tournament itself, which gets underway in France in September.

They will initially gather for an initial training camp on 29 May to begin preparations for warm-up matches in the Famous Grouse Nations Series against France, Italy and Georgia at BT Murrayfield in July and August. Scotland also play France in an away warm-up in St. Etienne in August.

The Rugby World Cup itself will see Scotland compete in Pool B alongside South Africa, Ireland, Tonga and Romania, with a first fixture against the world champion Springboks on Sunday 10 September in Marseille.

Some fans have mocked the squad, with one saying "That's more like a Barbarians squad than a Scotland squad," another stating "Nice to see some Scots in there for once," and a third jokingly saying "I'm backing South Africa B to do well at the World Cup."

Ewan Ashman, hooker, Canada

WP Nel, prop, South Africa

Pierre Schoeman, prop, South Africa

Javan Sebastian, prop, Wales

Cameron Henderson, lock, Hong Kong

Sam Skinner, lock, England

Andy Christie, back-row, England

Jack Dempsey, back-row, Australia

Hamish Watson, back-row, England

Ali Price, scrum-half, England

Ben White, scrum-half, England

Ben Healy, fly-half, Ireland

Chris Harris, centre, England

Cameron Redpath, centre, France

Sione Tuipulotu, centre, Australia

Kyle Steyn, winger, South Africa

Duhan van der Merwe, winger, South Africa

Hame Faiva, hooker, New Zealand

Marco Manfredi, hooker, Germany

Ivan Nemer, prop, Argentina

Dino Lamb, lock, England

Dave Sisi, lock, Germany

Toa Halafihi, flanker, New Zealand

Sebastien Negri, flanker, Zimbabwe

Martin Page-Relo, scrum-half, France

Stephen Varney, scrum-half, Wales

Ignacio Brex, centre, Argentina

Monty Ioane, wing, Australia

Paolo Odogwu, wing, England

Ange Capuozzo, fullback, France

Will Davies-King, prop, England

Tomas Francis, prop, England

Henry Thomas, prop, England

Ben Carter, lock, England

Will Rowlands, lock, England

Christ Tshiunza, lock, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Taulupe Faletau, number 8, Tonga

Dan Lydiate, flanker, England

Josh Macleod, flanker, Monaco

Gareth Anscombe, fly-half, New Zealand

Max Llewellyn, centre, England

George North, centre, England

Nick Tompkins, centre, England

Johnny Williams, centre, England

Alex Cuthbert, wing, England