Sam Burgess and Henry Slade named in England squad, Luther Burrell and Nick Easter miss out

Their inclusion means that Six Nations regular Luther Burrell has been culled from the final 31-man group.

Fly-half Danny Cipriani, lock Dave Attwood, No 8 Nick Easter, flanker Calum Clark, prop Alex Corbisiero and hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie also missed out.

Burgess's inclusion caps a remarkable rise after he switched from rugby league at the start of the year and spent much of his early time in union playing as flanker.

Lancaster, however, has been hugely impressed by his physicality and big-match temperament and, after just over one hour's international action in the home warm-up against France, has trusted him to continue his progress in the white heat of a World Cup.

Slade made his debut alongside Burgess at Twickenham earlier this month and offers a classy, creative alternative in midfield and also covers fly-half.

Jonathan Joseph and Brad Barritt are the other centres, leaving Burrell, a regular in the last two Six Nations, to make way.

The inclusion of Slade finally shut the door on Cipriani, who could not oust George Ford or Owen Farrell from the fly-half berths or Mike Brown or Alex Goode from full-back.

Ben Morgan, who made his first appearance in eight months against France at Twickenham following a broken leg, has seen off the challenge of Nick Easter as number eight back up to Billy Vunipola.

George Kruis was chosen ahead of Dave Attwood at lock while Jamie George claimed the third hooker berth ahead of Luke Cowan-Dickie.

"It's really positive that we have such depth and options to choose from," Lancaster said.

"It is tough to leave anyone out but it's important to stress that the players not in this group are still part of our wider squad and could come in at any point.

"After 10 weeks in camp we have made our final selection of players and we believe we have a great group to take us into the tournament."