‘Fantastic’ Stephen Myler has earned his England chance, says Luther Burrell
Cipriani impressed on England’s summer tour and the maverick Londoner has high profile supporters, including former Red Rose boss Sir Clive Woodward.
But Myler’s sheer reliability won the day and Burrell, one of seven Saints men in England’s 33-man November squad, has nothing but praise.
He said: “It’s not a conservative selection at all. Stephen has done some fantastic work for Northampton and has been in and around England training camps and the international scene for a while.
“He never really has a bad game and the success of our club has mainly revolved around him.
“What you get with Stevie is someone who’s very good at operating players around him, putting them into position and space and making plays at the right time. He’s got very good game understanding – and that’s just in attack.
“Defensively, he’s not afraid to put his body on the line and if you look at Stevie against Racing Metro last week, he put a big shot on Jamie Roberts, turned the ball over and we’ve gone 40-metres down the pitch.
“That’s just a little bit of what you get and he’s fantastic icon for English rugby. Playing for England is his dream, I saw the joy on his face in Argentina last year, so I’m proud of Stevie and chuffed he’s got an opportunity.
“He can press the other No.10s and, hopefully, he’ll get a shot.”
Burrell, below, is proud to have been called up himself as an initial choice rather than as injury cover, and credits Saints for developing his all-round game.
He said: “To be recognised and named in the EPS squad is a huge achievement and the Saints coaches deserve credit because they’ve given me the confidence to go out and play the way I want to play.
“There are times in big games where you kind of hesitate to do certain things but Alex King, Jim Mallinder and Alan Dickens have really stood by me without putting too much pressure on my shoulders.
“I didn’t want to be known as just an all-out ball carrier. It’s one of the strengths of my game, but I needed to show another side and I’ve now got a skill-set that Kingy helped me develop that’s going to pay dividends in big games.” None will be bigger than New Zealand in a fortnight before England take on South Africa, Samoa and South Africa.
Burrell said: “We’ve got the toughest autumn series and a huge task on our hands, but we’ve got the squad to compete on our own patch.
“We never want to lose at home and there’s no better time than before a World Cup to take on the best and see where we are as a team.
“People might look at Samoa as an easier game but I can tell you that they’ll be no pushovers and we’ve got Samoans at Northampton, like the Pisi brothers and Kahn Fotuali’i, who are already giving us banter and will be well fired up.”
NEALE HARVEY
