DURSLEY’S Ben Morgan should be picked for England’s World Cup squad when it is announced by national coach Stuart Lancaster on Thursday afternoon despite only playing one half of one match since January.
That is the view of former Gloucester captain Kingsley Jones who also thinks that, while Cherry and Whites wing Jonny May will be a cert to be named in England’s 31-man squad, centre Billy Twelvetrees is likely to be one of the star names to be left out.
Jones, who played at Kingsholm 48 times between 1998 and 2001 and captained the club during that time, is a big admirer of Morgan.
But, with former Thornbury ace Billy Vunipola set to be named as one of the number eights in the England squad, the tough choice for Lancaster is whether to risk going with Morgan, who was Man of the Series during last Autumn’s Test campaign, or go with Harlequins Nick Easter who had a decent run-out in the warm-up defeat to France in Paris last Saturday.
Jones admitted it was an awkward dilemma. He said: “I think Ben Morgan has every chance. Lancaster is a big fan of his and they want him to come through.
“He is the man to challenge Vunipola for his place. I think having Ben on the bench to come on after sixty minutes for Vunipola gives England a lot of impact.
“If Lancaster is concerned about putting him on for the start of the group games, I would let him play against Uruguay (the final match) and get him ready for the later games (knock-outs).
“Uruguay will not trouble anyone in that group and England can put a virtual second team out if they wanted. It means that if there are players like Ben who they need to have another look at, they can do that in this game.”
However,while Jones is optimistic that Lancaster will pick the Dursley-born number eight in the World Cup party on Thursday, he is less so about the fortunes of Twelvetrees, despite the Kingsholm centre having featured on the bench in the last two warm-up matches.
Saracens’ Brad Barrett and Bath’s  Jonathan Joseph are dead certs to take two of the England centre positions in the squad which leaves two more to be decided from Bath’s cross-code convert Sam Burgess, Exeter’s rising star Henry Slade, Northampton’s Luther Burrell and Twlevetrees.
Jones reckons Burgess will get the nod as he ‘offers something different like Jonah Lomu did’ and that Slade may get the other berth.
“Burgess could be a star at the end of this and he has that X Factor. Slade could go as he can also play at half-back and would be the third-choice number 10 so I don’t think Twelvetrees is in that first XV.”