The 33-year-old London Wasps skipper, who has won 73 caps including the 2003 Word Cup final, is back after a 17-month absence following his international retirement in August 2004.

"I’m delighted to be back," said Lawrence. "It’s a first step for me - I’ve been asking for it, it’s happened and now I’m back in the squad.

"But I know as well as anyone the amount of hard work it’s going to take to get back in the team and then to stay in it.

"I said from the outset that it’s important to have competition for places in the squad and if we can have that in as many positions then we are going to get stronger and stronger.

"The RBS 6 Nations is a tough tournament to play in and from my previous experience, when we won the Grand Slam (2003), I think we used 36 players across the five games. It is going to be a squad effort and the quality players here are a reflection of what is going on in the game at the moment.

"I don’t know when my chance will come – it may come in the first game, it may not, but I hope at some stage it will come and it’s a question of being in the right shape physically and mentally to take the opportunity when it does

"England have moved on, and rightly so, from that whole World Cup experience and this is very much a different squad all be it with the same target to win every match."

Today’s two sessions involved training against the Loughborough University side and Dallaglio added: "I’ve enjoyed the time here. It’s only a day and a half but it’s important to get as much time as you possibly can together and certainly for me, if I’m going to be involved over the next few weeks, there is a lot to learn and take in. You forget how much information you have to absorb playing at this level.

"I’ve been up to Loughborough a few times. It’s an excellent facility and it’s great to have so many people watching training this morning. It’s nice to have a change. You can get set in your ways in one particular place and the lads know that when they get back to Pennyhill Park it’s back into test match mode."

Andy Robinson praised the facilities at Loughborough, where England trained before the autumn’s Investec Challenge series, saying: "Everyone has made us very welcome and we have enjoyed the short time we have had together. The players have been keen and we are looking forward to meeting up again Pennyhill Park on Sunday evening."