Tuesday 19 January 2016 16:54, UK
New boy Josh Beaumont says he may just have arrived in the England squad at the perfect moment.
England are rebuilding after crashing out at the group stages of the World Cup and Beaumont is hopeful places in the starting XV will now be up for grabs.
New coach Eddie Jones has been installed and Sale back-row forward Beaumont was one of seven uncapped players he named in his squad for the forthcoming Six Nations Championships.
The 23-year-old said: "To pick up a cap is obviously my ultimate ambition and to keep a place in the squad. I don't know what the coaches are thinking but, if they give me the opportunity, then I'll hopefully grab it with both hands.
"You can't look away from the fact there are some experienced players in that squad in international rugby and you need experience, but maybe it's the start of a World Cup cycle and they'll be willing to give a couple of the younger guys a go.
"After every disappointment there has to be some sort of moving on. There's got to be questions asked and more opportunities. Hopefully, there will be different results in a few weeks' time."
Beaumont's father Bill famously captained England to Grand Slam success in 1980 but Josh does not think the family connection will be mentioned too often, now he is embarking on an international career of his own.
"He's proud," said Beaumont junior. "I spoke to him last week when I got the call-up. I speak to him quite regularly and he was pretty happy with me being selected.
"But he knows, as I know, that the hard work starts now. He achieved so much in the game and hopefully I'll be able to emulate that. You always get the 'son of' label, you just grow up with it and get used to it.
"It gets frustrating sometimes but, when you get to a certain level, you're only there for one reason, there's no external factors helping you to gain selection, so you just brush it off.
"A few articles have mentioned it quite heavily since last week but they're bound to, I understand that. From now on, I don't expect it to come up too much. I'm my own man and I'll just keep trying to perform well for Sale, hopefully perform well in camp, and you never know."
