Roebuck breakthrough inspires England debutant Carpenter

United States v England

Date: Saturday 19 July Kick-off: 22:05 BST Venue: Audi Field, Washington DC

Full-back Joe Carpenter says he wants to follow the example of Sale team-mate Tom Roebuck in claiming a regular England spot when he makes his Test debut against the United States on Saturday.

Carpenter toured Japan and New Zealand last summer with England, without winning a cap, and was left out of Steve Borthwick’s autumn and Six Nations selections.

However, with Marcus Smith on Lions duty and George Furbank out injured, he has been part of the squad this summer, scoring a try in the non-cap warm-up match against a France XV last month.

Roebuck, Carpenter’s former house-mate, was frustrated to not get more game time in Japan and New Zealand last summer, but made his first England start against Wales in the Six Nations and has four tries in his past four Tests.

“I’m excited to rip in,” Carpenter told BBC Sport.

“An opportunity to play for England is massive and, whatever game it is, it’s an opportunity to put my best foot forward and hopefully stay in the squad and get more opportunities.

“It’s great to be in this environment with Tom and see him thrive. I think he’s on five or six caps now and so I’m massively proud of him.

“We lived in academy houses together, and then moved into town together before eventually splitting off to live with our partners. He’s definitely my best mate in terms of rugby.

“To have someone that close to you doing it, it just pushes you to be better and get there with him.

“Unfortunately, he’s not playing this weekend. It would have been cool to share the field with him in an England shirt.

Carpenter faces considerable competition for the 15 shirt.

Leicester’s Freddie Steward started both wins over Argentina earlier in the tour, while, in addition to Furbank and Smith, injured Lion Elliot Daly and Henry Arundell, back in England contention after moving to Bath, can also play full-back.

However, the 23-year-old believes he is well suited to the attacking, opportunistic style that England want to play.

“For me there’s a lot on kick return and beating the first man, which is a big focus here – getting the boys on the front foot,” he said.

“That’s massive. And also being that edge connection that gets the ball to the wingers. We have got Cadan [Murley] and Manny [Immanuel Feyi-Waboso] this weekend who are absolutely flying. I want those boys to get the ball.

“I get on with Freddie really well. It’s great when that’s the case because you can compete together, learn together and get better together.

“Freddie is an aerial beast, isn’t he? That has been an area of my game over the past three years that I’ve been trying to match to his because obviously that’s one of one of his USPs.

Even with Roebuck rested, Sale are the best-represented club in England’s XV in Washington with fly-half George Ford and props Bevan Rodd and Asher Opoku-Fordjour alongside Carpenter.

Ben Curry is on the bench and, behind the scenes, Sale’s defence coach Byron McGuigan and physio Nav Sandhu have been seconded to England’s staff this summer.

Sale lost to Steward’s Leicester in the Premiership semi-finals in June, the fourth time in the past five seasons that they have reached the play-offs.

“I think that representation kind of reflects the last few seasons at Sale really,” Carpenter added.

“All the lads and all the coaches have been fantastic here, but it is really good that we’ve got such a good crew of Sale boys here.

“Next year for us it is about how we can keep that consistency throughout the year and I think it will show with the boys here and the boys we have signed.”