Who is Cool Hand Luke? Narraway surges up the charts

At Best, Luke Narraway began the season ranked fifth in the England No 8 ratings behind Martin Corry, Nick Easter, Lawrence Dallaglio and Joe Worsley.

Two retirements and two injuries later, fate has conspired to sweep Gloucester's back row forward from the back of the queue into the pack for a surprisingly early Test debut.

Once Easter had been ruled out of Saturday's Six Nations opener with Wales, the bolt out of the blue was always going to test the new cap's image as 'Cool Hand Luke'.

'I must confess it's come as a bit of a shock,' he said. 'I was pinching myself when the side was read out. Since then, it's been a case of making sure we are on top of our game to combat a very good Welsh back row.'

The Shed-heads at Kingsholm always expected one of their own to be lining up at No 8 at Twickenham, except they imagined he might have cropped up on the other side. Gareth Delve, the Welshman who Gloucester have picked ahead of Narraway for most of their European Cup ties, fails to make the 22, another victim of the Ospreys' domination.

England's newest cap has filled all three back row positions for Gloucester this season, although the 24-year-old would be the first to admit his progress would not have been quite as rapid had James Forrester not spent the past 10 months recovering from a badly smashed knee.

Narraway joined Gloucester straight from school six years ago, making his first-team debut a year later. 'I have no worries about Luke making the step up,' said Gloucester head coach Dean Ryan. 'He has grown massively in stature and ought to be around the England squad for a long time to come.'