HENRY SLADE’S World Cup dream is still alive after he survived Stuart Lancaster’s latest England squad cut.
Head coach Lancaster has trimmed his training squad down to 39, with seven players, including Chris Ashton, getting dropped this time around.
However, Plymouth’s Slade remains in the party, along with fellow former Albion players Luke Cowan-Dickie and Jack Nowell.
It means uncapped back Slade is almost certain to feature in one of England’s warm-up games before Lancaster names his final 31-man World Cup team.
As well as Ashton, fellow wings Semesa Rokoduguni and Marland Yarde, centre Kyle Eastmond, scrum-half Lee Dickson, flanker Matt Kvesic and prop Matt Mullan have also been dropped.
Lancaster, who started off with a squad of 50, said: “It has been difficult to narrow down the squad as everyone has contributed and given their all.
“But what I’ve said to those guys who are not coming back in on Sunday is that the door is not closed by any means.
“They are only an injury away and there is a lot of international rugby to be played this season, culminating in a three-Test tour to Australia.”
England training squad: D Attwood (Bath Rugby), B Barritt (Saracens), K Brookes (Northampton Saints), M Brown (Harlequins), L Burrell (Northampton Saints), S Burgess (Bath Rugby), D Care (Harlequins), D Cipriani (Sale Sharks), C Clark (Northampton Saints), D Cole (Leicester Tigers), A Corbisiero (Northampton Saints), L Cowan-Dickie (Exeter Chiefs), N Easter (Harlequins), O Farrell (Saracens), G Ford (Bath Rugby), A Goode (Saracens), J George (Saracens), J Haskell (Wasps), J Joseph (Bath Rugby), C Lawes (Northampton Saints), J Launchbury (Wasps), G Kruis (Saracens), J Marler (Harlequins), J May (Gloucester Rugby), B Morgan (Gloucester Rugby), J Nowell (Exeter Chiefs), G Parling (Exeter Chiefs), C Robshaw (Harlequins), H Slade (Exeter Chiefs), B Twelvetrees (Gloucester Rugby), M Vunipola (Saracens), B Vunipola (Saracens), A Watson (Bath Rugby), R Webber (Bath Rugby), R Wigglesworth (Saracens), D Wilson (Bath Rugby), T Wood (Northampton Saints), B Youngs (Leicester Tigers), T Youngs (Leicester Tigers).
Meanwhile, dual-registered Plymouth Albion scrum-half Jack Maunder help make two tries as England Under-18s beat their French counterparts 15-7 in South Africa.