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The nine players not used by England in this Autumn Nations Series
By Liam Heagney
Four players named in all four of the England match week squads of 36 this month will depart Pennyhill this weekend without making a single Autumn Nations Series appearance.
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Forwards Alex Coles and Trevor Davison and backs Alex Lozowski and Luke Northmore were included by Steve Borthwick in every start-of-the-week squad named for the matches versus New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Japan.
However, none of the quartet were included when the head coach went on to the name his respective match day 23s, a group that would have been five had Fin Smith not been named on the England bench for this Sunday’s series-ending game against the Japanese.
Borthwick called up a total of 40 players across the series – 22 forwards and 18 backs – and 31 were subsequently selected in an England match day 23.
Five of the 22 forwards were left without a cap – the aforementioned Coles and Davison along with the now-retired Joe Marler, who was in the match week one squad, Ted Hill, who was in three match week squads, and Charlie Ewels, who was in two.
The four backs overlooked for match day selection were Lozowski, Northmore, Elliot Daly, who was in three match week squads, and Cadan Murley, who was called up at the start of the Japan week to cover for the injured Daly.
Six of the 18 England forwards will have started all four matches when the series ends this weekend – Ben Earl, Ellis Genge, skipper Jamie George, Maro Itoje, George Martin and Will Stuart. Four backs will have achieved that same feat, Tommy Freeman, Ollie Lawrence, Henry Slade and Marcus Smith.
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Never heard of any of them. Are we sure they exist?