“The spirit in the squad is fantastic. I came back into the squad after 15 months and I  looked around round the room and I actually thought  'we are not in bad shape'. The strength of the squad is better than it was.

“There is a hard core of experienced players who have won big games for their club and country and then there are the likes of Danny Cipriani and Danny Hipkiss who are knocking on the door and bringing that enthusiasm. There is a great blend there and if we stay injury free and get our tactics right I don’t see any reason why we can’t go into the World Cup with a lot of confidence." 

Ashton gave the following injury update:

Phil Vickery (London Wasps) did not train yesterday or today because of a mild sprain of the medial collateral ligament of his left knee sustained on Tuesday. It is anticipated that he will be fully available to train when the squad re-assembles for the week of the match against Wales.

Josh Lewsey (London Wasps) did not train today because of mild left ligament tibial stress syndrome (shin splints) which is expected to settle down over the next few days.

Charlie Hodgson (Sale Sharks) did not train today as a precaution because of some discomfort in his right knee. However, he has trained all week and we expect him to return to full training in the next couple of days.

Tom Rees (London Wasps) and Mike Tindall (Gloucester Rugby) are continuing their rehabilitation from right knee and right tibial (shin) injuries respectively.