GLOUCESTER number eight Luke Narraway will make his Test debut in a surprise selection for England's RBS 6 Nations Championship opener against Wales at Twickenham on Saturday.

The 24-year-old was left out of England boss Brian Ashton's initial Six Nations training squad.

But he was summoned to Twickenham last week as injury cover, and now goes straight into the team alongside back-row colleagues James Haskell and Lewis Moody.

Harlequins number eight Nick Easter, a regular selection during the Ashton regime, has been battling to overcome a knee injury.

Narraway's Gloucester colleague Iain Balshaw is recalled at full-back for his first England appearance since last summer's tour of South Africa.

It means no place for Mathew Tait - England's best player in the World Cup final three months ago - either at full-back or outside centre, where Gloucester's Mike Tindall returns.

Tait had a poor game in the number 15 shirt for Newcastle against Guinness Premiership opponents Leicester last Saturday, and he looks to have paid a hefty price. He does not even feature among the replacements.

Elsewhere, Gloucester wing and former Bradford Bulls rugby league star Lesley Vainikolo is named on the bench alongside fellow uncapped back, Wasps fly-half Danny Cipriani.

Tonga-born powerhouse Vainikolo, a New Zealand rugby league international, qualifies for England on residency. He is in his first season of union since switching codes.

Narraway, who came through Worcester's academy system before joining Gloucester, has proved a driving force behind his club's rise to the Premiership summit and clinching of a Heineken Cup quarter-final place this term.

And he now has a golden opportunity to help launch a new England back-row era following the recent Test retirements of 2003 World Cup winners Lawrence Dallaglio and Martin Corry.

Narraway is among seven players selected for the Six Nations kick-off who did not start England's last game, the World Cup final against South Africa in Paris on October 20.

The others are Balshaw, Tindall, his midfield partner Toby Flood, wing David Strettle, Bath lock Steve Borthwick and rising Wasps star Haskell.

In the absence of Josh Lewsey, who failed to make England's Six Nations squad, Tait and Mark Cueto were thought to be the leading full-back candidates.

But Ashton, a committed Balshaw supporter, has handed the 28-year-old Lancastrian another opportunity to relaunch an international career that began eight years and 30 caps ago.

Balshaw is joined in the back three by prolific try-scoring wings Paul Sackey, a World Cup star who has recovered from mumps, and Strettle.

Harlequins speedster Strettle missed the World Cup after breaking a bone in his foot during pre-tournament training last summer.

And that setback came just two months after a debilitating virus meant he was admitted to hospital during England's South Africa tour and returned home without playing a game.

Tindall, meanwhile, was another World Cup absentee when he failed to recover in time from a broken leg, but he now returns to offer England midfield direction and leadership.

Up front, Ashton has kept faith with five of his World Cup final pack, including the entire front row - Andrew Sheridan, Mark Regan and skipper Phil Vickery - with another starter, Simon Shaw, partnering Borthwick at lock.

Shaw has recovered from an ankle injury suffered during Wasps' Heineken Cup defeat to Munster 10 days ago, with Borthwick edging out Leicester's Ben Kay.

Regan, meanwhile, who celebrated his 36th birthday yesterday, retains his place above other squad hookers Lee Mears and George Chuter.

But although bench cover for the forwards is considerably experienced, all three reserve backs are uncapped - Vainikolo, Cipriani and Sale Sharks scrum-half Richard Wigglesworth.

England boast a 20-year unbeaten Twickenham record against Wales, and they will start as favourites on Saturday despite a feelgood factor sweeping through the Welsh camp generated by new coach Warren Gatland.

And the spotlight will once again be on England fly-half Jonny Wilkinson, who has seen off the twin challenge of Cipriani and Charlie Hodgson, to retain the number 10 shirt.

Wilkinson needs just 18 points to become the first player to reach 1,000 for England in Test matches.

He is also only 61 points behind the world international points record of 1090 for Wales and the British Lions held by current Wales kicking coach Neil Jenkins.

The 11 players in Ashton's training squad not currently involved this weekend are Tait, Cueto, Chuter, Easter, Jamie Noon, Charlie Hodgson, Paul Hodgson, Tim Payne, Louis Deacon, Tom Croft and Michael Lipman.

Team: I Balshaw (Gloucester); P Sackey (Wasps), M Tindall (Gloucester), T Flood (Newcastle), D Strettle (Harlequins); J Wilkinson (Newcastle), A Gomarsall (Harlequins); A Sheridan (Sale Sharks), M Regan (Bristol), P Vickery (Wasps, capt), S Shaw (Wasps), S Borthwick (Bath), J Haskell (Wasps), L Moody (Leicester), L Narraway (Gloucester).

Replacements: L Mears (Bath), M Stevens (Bath), B Kay (Leicester), T Rees (Wasps), R Wigglesworth (Sale Sharks), D Cipriani (Wasps), L Vainikolo (Gloucester).