Jones set to name banned Ashton for camp

CHRIS ASHTON is due to be named in the England squad for next week’s short training camp in Bristol — despite currently being banned from playing. Sale’s recruit from Toulon is suspended until October 16, after being found guilty of a tip-tackle on Castres scrum-half Rory Kockott during a pre-season fixture in France. Head coach Eddie Jones will announce his squad for the November internationals two days after Ashton’s ban ends, meaning he has no time to make his case on the field. But Jones is set to include the 31-year-old in the West Country gathering from Sunday to Tuesday, with a view to considering him for a Test recall in the autumn. Sportsmail understands that the England coaching staff were making a late call over whether or not to include Danny Cipriani in this latest training squad, following the fly-half’s arrest and prosecution in Jersey. But ut another leading figure in n Gloucester’s early-season charge, prop Val Rapava Ruskin, is thought to be in contention. Meanwhile, one year before the Rugby World Cup kicks off in Japan, the danger of typhoons, earthquakes and floods will make it the most challenging tournament to stage, say the organisers. The country was hit by its most powerful storm in a quaquarterte of a century this month — TyphoonTy Jebi — which kilkilled at least 10 people nnear Osaka. Japan has, on average, 480 earthquakes a year and two weeks ago a 66.6 magnitude tremor cacaused a landslide near SapSapporo — where England start ttheir tournament against Tonga — killing nine people and injuring at least 150. With a year to go, World Rugby are preparing for the worst. ‘It’s a real hot topic for us right now,’ said tournament director Alan Gilpin. ‘Teams will be arriving at this time next year. We are planning what happens if a team hotel is lost, if a training venue is lost, or if one or more match venues are lost. And where do you relocate matches to? ‘Kumamoto, Fukuoka and Oita (the latter could host a potential England v Wales quarter-final) are three relatively proximate venues that could be affected by one set of typhoons coming through the south, for example. But even then you’ve got nine other venues that would probably be unaffected. ‘Relocation of matches really is the key. In terms of losing days, as with any Rugby World Cup you’ve got a lot of non-match days that you can use.’