By James Standley

Chuter says he would have been happy to play

Leicester hooker George Chuter believes England's World Cup hopes could suffer from not being able to take a strong squad to South Africa next week.

Chuter is one of more than 30 players unavailable because of involvement in the Heineken or Challenge Cup finals.

"It is frustrating. I'd love to go out there and play," he told BBC Sport.

"It adds up to quite a significant tour if you ask me. You need to be playing away from home against the best teams to start building for the World Cup."

England have only won three Tests away from home in the four years since the last World Cup, against Italy (twice, in 2004 and 2006) and Scotland (2004).

Comprehensive defeats in Dublin and Cardiff during this year's Six Nations hardly bode well for their hopes in France.

Physically I feel that I could play, but the decision's been taken out of my hands George Chuter

"England aren't at the stage at the moment where we can pick and choose our games," Chuter acknowledged.

"Especially away from home, we need to be playing together as a team and a squad.

"We started to make inroads at home in the Six Nations - we started to play well and show signs of what we could do.

"It would be nice to be able to put a first-choice team out against South Africa and see where we stand because our away form was poor - we didn't win any games away from home."

The England squad flies out to South Africa next Tuesday, 15 May, with the first Test against the Springboks in Bloemfontein on 26 May and the second in Pretoria on 2 June.

The two teams also meet in a pivotal World Cup group match on 14 September in Paris.

But Chuter, who started every Six Nations game this season, will be preoccupied with a Guinness Premiership final against Gloucester on Saturday and a Heineken Cup final against Wasps on 20 May.

"Physically I feel that I could play, but the decision's been taken out of my hands and I'm not complaining about another two weeks' holiday," he added.