Saturday 6 September 2014 23:47, UK
David Strettle is sure he can fight his way back into contention for a place in the England squad after making a flying start to the Aviva Premiership season.
Strettle scored a hat-trick for Saracens in the last-gasp 34-28 win over Wasps at Twickenham on Saturday, in what proved to be a thrilling start to the domestic season.
The 31-year-old winger has not featured for his country since June 2013 but feels his omission last year was more down to Stuart Lancaster looking to blood a series of younger players ahead of the World Cup.
I definitely still have England ambitions. I always get asked this, but I think you're asking the wrong person - you should ask Stuart Lancaster and Andy Farrell.
"If I had been fresh on the scene last season, I think they would have put me in the squad," Strettle said.
"But Stuart probably thinks, 'I know what I get from him, so I'm going to see if anyone comes out and makes the shirt their own'. And if no-one does that then hopefully he'll sit back and look again.
"If I'm playing the best when he looks at that, then hopefully I'll have a chance. Everyone wants to play so well that he can't say no.
"I definitely still have England ambitions. I always get asked this, but I think you're asking the wrong person - you should ask Stuart Lancaster and Andy Farrell.
"I always get asked, 'do you want to be involved?' All the lads do. I think I played well enough last year to be in the squad but it didn't happen, so we'll see about it this time around. I've not given up on it myself."
Strettle also reckons there should have been no doubt over his match-winning third score on Saturday, despite lengthy deliberation by the television match official.
The former Harlequins flyer's third try stole Saracens victory at the death against Harlequins in the first clash of the new season.
Premiership bosses have told referees to make decisions with greater autonomy and rely less on the TMO this term, but Andrew Small referred the pivotal decision.
Strettle remained nonplussed about the delay in awarding the score, despite suggestions he lost the ball in the act of grounding.
"I dived to slide in, but because it's so dry out there it bit and I bounced," Strettle said.
"Because you're diving quickly you don't know where you've actually bounced and I worried whether I'd bounced over the line. But then as soon as I saw the screen I thought, 'happy days'.
"Then it's drawn out for five minutes, and you think, 'I can see it's a try now', and you know in your own head if it's a try or not. They slow it down - everything looks different in slow motion - and you start to think, 'oh God'.
"You even see other games where everyone thinks it's a try and the next thing it's not given. So even when you see it and think it's definitely a try, you still worry whether they're going to give it."
"You've got to get things right, but not take decisions away from the people that see it live. Dissecting it removes gut instinct, and that instinct is usually right."
