An element of surprise was missing yesterday as England's World Cup squad was unveiled without fanfare. Brian Ashton will head for France with an overwhelmingly tried-and-tested group of 30. If the head coach was ever tempted to gamble on a wild card, his chips remained firmly in his pocket.
Looking down the list there could hardly be a more obvious bias toward solidity, mental toughness and experience. This is a thick-skinned squad whose strength lies in defence. What it conspicuously lacks, however, is the freshness of youth. The average age of 29 years and four months is almost two years older than that of the 2003 squad, dubbed "Dad's Army".
For someone frequently hailed as a visionary, rarely content to settle for the orthodox, Ashton appears to have taken pragmatism to rare heights.
As a result it is a case of thank you and good night for the gifted likes of James Haskell, Nick Abendanon, Toby Flood and Danny Cipriani, as well as Tom Palmer, Kevin Yates, Mike Tindall and Charlie Hodgson. Tindall and Hodgson have made huge efforts to recover from injury but their participation was always a long shot. Hodgson is entitled to feel upset, having missed out through injury last time around.
The absence of Haskell is a rather different story, given he was widely touted as the man capable of adding vital mid-game impetus to the pack in the Pool A games against South Africa and Samoa.
The back-row winners are Nick Easter and Lewis Moody, with Martin Corry and Joe Worsley also competing for the six jersey. There is a slot in the second row for Simon Shaw, who has a winners' medal from 2003 but did not, as a late replacement, play a game. A preference for lineout specialists has seen Ben Kay and Steve Borthwick included at the expense of Palmer.
As expected, a certain Lawrence Bruno Nero Dallaglio is back for one last hurrah at 35. The captaincy is entrusted to Phil Vickery, another of a dozen survivors from the squad first picked by Clive Woodward in 2003. Those who cast Vickery as a figurehead while Dallaglio leads by proxy underestimate the Cornish yeoman.
Mike Catt, who led England against France last weekend and will be 36 next month, is an equally familiar old-stager, his selection enabling him to equal Jason Leonard's England record of playing in four World Cups.
The decision to axe Abendanon has also created an extra vacancy in midfield, where Jamie Noon and Dan Hipkiss have been given the nod.
England World Cup squad
BACKS:M Cueto (Sale Sharks), P Sackey (Wasps), J Lewsey (Wasps), J Robinson (unattached), M Tait (Newcastle), D Hipkiss (Leicester), J Noon (Newcastle), M Catt (London Irish), A Farrell (Saracens), O Barkley (Bath), J Wilkinson (Newcastle), S Perry (Bristol), A Gomarsall (Harlequins), P Richards (London Irish).
FORWARDS:A Sheridan (Sale Sharks), P Freshwater (Perpignan), P Vickery (Wasps, capt), M Stevens (Bath), M Regan (Bristol), G Chuter (Leicester), L Mears (Bath), S Shaw (Wasps), S Borthwick (Bath), B Kay (Leicester), M Corry (Leicester), L Moody (Leicester), J Worsley (Wasps), T Rees (Wasps), N Easter (Harlequins), L Dallaglio (Wasps).
