WARRIORS Women wing Lydia Thompson has been named in the England squad which will play France on Saturday (kick-off 1.10pm).
Thompson is included in the 23-strong squad from which head coach Simon Middleton will select his team for the opening Autumn test.
The group were set to meet at Bisham Abbey yesterday (Tuesday) before flying to France today, with Thompson looking to build on her 44 caps.
England face France at Stade Marcel Michelin, Clermont on Saturday before hosting Les Bleus in their Quilter International at Sandy Park, Exeter a week later.
Middleton said: “We’ve had a couple of strong training camps over the last few weeks at which we’ve moved our game on significantly and now we are looking forward to heading to France.
“We’ve said all along, although we have 28 contracted players, we have a wider pool of players to select from in the Tyrrells Premier 15s and wherever possible we will pick on form, that’s exactly what we’ve done. Abby Dow and Ellena Perry have both shown outstanding form in the opening six rounds.
“Outside of New Zealand, France is one of the toughest places to go and play. It’s a massive challenge but it’s exactly what we want and we can’t wait to get there.
“We play them away again in our opening match at next year’s Six Nations so it’ll be a good marker of where we are. We’ll focus on what we’ve been working on and hope to turn some of the things we’ve been working on in training into reality onto the field.”