Ben Foden 'deserves autumn internationals start'

29/09/2010

Jeremy Guscott has said Ben Foden deserves to start at full-back when the autumn internationals kick off against New Zealand.

England will take on the All Blacks at Twickenham on November 6th 2010, with clashes against Australia, Samoa and South Africa taking place over the following weeks.

Ahead of the occasion, Guscott told BBC Sport he would give Northampton number 15 Foden the nod over Delon Armitage of London Irish, despite the fact that both have started the season in impressive style.

The former England star argued that players should only be replaced if their rivals for the position are performing substantially better than them.

"At this time, I think Armitage and Foden are pretty equal. Therefore I would keep Foden at full-back," Guscott explained.

He went on to state that England team manager Martin Johnson will be happy to have the selection headache prior to the start of the autumn internationals.

Foden has been capped six times for England and scored his first international try in the 2010 Six Nations defeat to France.

Posted by Sandie Banwait