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as expected, there were no radical changes to england's rugby union squad ahead of the 2008 six nations championship. brian ashton, whose own position as head coach was confirmed only recently, named just four uncapped players in the 32-man group - one of those, though, was powerful tongan-born, and former new zealand rugby league winger, lesley vainikolo. soundbite: (english) "he's played union before, it's not a new fame to him, he played union as a young player - we saw that immediately when he switched to rugby union. given that he is the top try scorer in the guinness premiership, and he's probably plated half of the games of the some of the others (top try scorers) beneath him that have scored (regularly). he's also got an x-factor. you don't see many england wingers that are six-foot-two (6'2") and 17-and-a-half/18 stone. international players with x-factors are pretty important people." super caption: brian ashton, england head coach. some observers, including former england international turned television pundit dewi morris, wanted more. soundbite: (english) "it's difficult as i can see where brian (ashton) is coming from. it's all about winning and he has only got about a week to prepare for the first game against wales in the six nations. but i would love to have seen him being a bit more radical. i would have loved to have seen him go with the youth." supercaption: dewi morris, former england scrum-half. for ashton, vainikolo, fly-half danny cipriani, scrum-half richard wigglesworth and flanker tom croft was enough new blood, with world cup skipper phil vickery retained as captain. england, surprise world cup runners-up last october, face the new season, beginning with that game against wales on the 2nd of february, without martin corry, jason robinson, mike catt and lawrence dallaglio - the four, all former captains, have retired.