So there you have it: as we suspected, pretty much the remainder of the World Cup squad plus a few bolters. No-one saw Steve Shingler coming though did they? Hitherto the only time I had seen him was getting red-carded for a dangerous tackle. They’ll need to update his Wikipedia entry – it says he is Welsh. Oh, and you’ll want to see this video after the jump.
Shingler, who is primarily a flyhalf but has been playing centre of late, has also been capped for Wales U20 which the Welsh have used in the past to tie players, but I am sure this would have been investigated. Of interest might also be this slightly hilarious (and apparently award winning) video, towards the end (thanks to Snitch9):
Someone somewhere is cringing!
With an extra 2 slots from the exercise I conducted yesterday, the ten additions to the World Cup squad are Jones, Hogg, Laidlaw, Weir and Shingler in the backs and McKenzie, Harley, Denton in the forwards. Denton and Laidlaw were capped in the World Cup warm-ups and will be looking to claim a more permanent spot this time round for sure.
Backs: J Ansbro (London Irish), M Blair (Edinburgh), C Cusiter (Glasgow Warriors), S Danielli (Ulster), N De Luca (Edinburgh), M Evans (Castres), S Hogg, R Jackson (both Glasgow Warriors), L Jones, G Laidlaw (both Edinburgh), R Lamont (Glasgow Warriors), S Lamont (Scarlets), R Lawson (Gloucester), G Morrison (Glasgow Warriors), D Parks (Cardiff Blues), S Shingler (London Irish) and D Weir (Glasgow Warriors).
Forwards: J Barclay (Glasgow Warriors), K Brown (Saracens), G Cross, D Denton (both Edinburgh Rugby), A Dickinson (Sale Sharks), R Ford (Edinburgh Rugby), R Gray, D Hall (both Glasgow Warriors), J Hamilton (Gloucester), R Harley (Glasgow Warriors), A Jacobsen (Edinburgh), A Kellock (Glasgow Warriors), S Lawson (Gloucester), M Low (Glasgow Warriors), F McKenzie (Sale Sharks), E Murray (Newcastle Falcons), R Rennie (Edinburgh Rugby), A Strokosch (Gloucester) and R Vernon (Sale Sharks).