• Rugby World Cup 2019: Toner, Franks and the stars not touching down in Japan

    We take a look at five top players who might consider themselves unfortunate to miss the Rugby World Cup in Japan.
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    The world’s best are converging on Japan for the 2019 Rugby World Cup, where New Zealand will hope to again defend their title.

    But with only 31 players able to be selected by each team, a number of notable names have not made the cut this year.

    We take a look at five who might count themselves unfortunate not to be involved in the sport’s biggest event.

    Devin Toner (Ireland)

    Ireland have not quite hit the same heights this year as in 2018 when they won the Six Nations Grand Slam and defeated the All Blacks, yet they have no shortage of options. The inclusion of Jean Kleyn, recently eligible due to the residency rule, has seen Devin Toner miss out.

    Remarkably, that law and Joe Schmidt’s decision resulted in criticism from World Rugby vice-president Agustin Pichot, who posted on Twitter: “I will be asking WR [World Rugby] for answers. I feel sorry for [Toner].”

    Schmidt responded: “I think [Pichot] has a number of big opinions, but they’re not ones that are relevant for us. Considering he is involved in World Rugby, he could have a look at what the rules were and not have so many things to say because for us it is tough enough to do our job and tough enough for me to have a conversation as I did with Dev.”

    Ben Te’o (England)

    With some key men fit again and available, experienced centre Ben Te’o paid the price.

    Head coach Eddie Jones was understandably questioned on the decision and explained: “I’m not going to go into reasons why he wasn’t selected. We’ve had conversations; he understands it. Whether he agrees with it is another matter. We’ve had that discussion with him and he’s just not in our top 31 players at the moment.”

    Te’o will instead be plying his trade with Toulon during the tournament, having been called in as cover for their World Cup stars.

    Owen Franks (New Zealand)

    Not many teams have the luxury of leaving out a 31-year-old with 108 Tests to his name. But not many teams have the depth of New Zealand, unfortunately for Owen Franks.

    Franks had started each of the past two World Cup finals, playing the full 80 minutes in the 2011 triumph over France, but will not feature in the All Blacks’ latest title defence.

    Steve Hansen, who also left out Ngani Laumape, said: “[Franks] is one of the great All Blacks, he’s played over 100 Tests. But unfortunately we believe the game requires us to have big, mobile ones and threes and, in this case, we think the other guys are more so. It was a tough decision.”

    Mathieu Bastareaud (France)

    France named their initial World Cup squad in June and, while there were changes before the final selection was confirmed, Mathieu Bastareaud was not given the opportunity to force his way back into the side.

    Bastareaud was Les Bleus’ vice-captain as recently as the Six Nations, but his role in an underwhelming campaign appeared to count against him when coach Jacques Brunel named a youthful group.

    Morgan Parra and Teddy Thomas missed out, too, although Brunel insisted Fabien Galthie, who will take over as coach following the tournament, had no role in the decisions.

    Rob Evans (Wales)

    Loosehead prop Rob Evans was one of the stars of Wales’ Six Nations Grand Slam campaign this year but, along with Samson Lee, did not do enough to make Warren Gatland’s 31-man squad.

    It appears injury issues counted against Scarlets star Evans, who has played 36 Tests, although he is fit again following a shoulder operation at the end of last season.

    Gatland explained Wales were preferring more “durable” options, saying: “Rob hasn’t trained a lot in the lead up to the warm-up matches. He came in with a shoulder injury, then he’s picked up a neck injury and a couple of back issues. Rob hadn’t played a lot.”

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