The Harlequins No.9 is close to a playing comeback after the disappointment of being ruled out of the Rugby World Cup by a broken toe.

"It was very hard to watch the boys out there," he said. "If we stay together as a squad we can really build on it and in four years time on our home turf hopefully we can win the World Cup,"

He also outlines why he’s supporting the Movember charity campaign for Prostate Cancer Care and men’s health awareness.

Elsewhere we find out about the England Sevens side’s build up to the start of the HSBC Sevens World Series next month.

Leading scorer Dan Norton and forward James Rodwell give their verdict from behind the scenes.

And head coach Gary Street tells us about the upcoming games against France for England Women before they tackle a three-Test series against New Zealand.

There are seven new caps in Street’s squad and he expects them to be fully tested in the passionate encounters in Marseille and Aix-en-Provence.

For the full interviews, check out today’s RFU Podcast. Here you can listen to the weekly podcast or subscribe to iTunes and have it delivered straight to your inbox each week.

The former London Wasps, Leicester Tigers and Biarritz centre – capped at senior level against Australia and New Zealand in November 2009 – is one of five changes to the squad for the Barcelona tournament on July 9-10.

Head coach Ben Ryan recalls Chris Brightwell and Andrew Higgins as well as HSBC Sevens World Series regulars Dan Norton, England’s leading try scorer last season, and Simon Hunt.

Wing Higgins, who has more than 100 Aviva Premiership appearances to his credit with Bath, Bristol and Exeter Chiefs, and forward Brightwell, who spent last season with Sale Sharks, both featured in the Lyon victory.

England top the European Grand Prix table after title wins in Lyon and Moscow last month, beating Spain and Portugal in the two finals.  Nick Royle and Christian Lewis-Pratt are the leading try scorer and points scorer in the series so far.

Winning the overall title is one aim but head coach Ryan’s focus is on developing individual and team play, and increasing competition for places with next season’s HSBC Sevens World Series in mind. The changes for Moscow take the total number of players used in the summer series to 17 with more waiting in the wings.

“We’ve made five changes to the Moscow squad and that’s in line with our policy for the series to widen our net and get more players involved,” Ryan said.

“A couple of old hands are back in to break down their games and will have supporting roles, so Dan Norton, for example, will back up Nick Royle. Ayoola Erinle is a free agent and he’s weighing up his options at the moment. He’s got pedigree and he’s potentially a real asset.

“We’re looking at players in different positions and different roles and it’s been good so far. From a coaching point of view this series has been a great test bed to try things out.

“In terms of experience, it’s great and it means that we can look at guys who can get up to 28 games under their belts rather than have someone going straight in to make their debut in the world series.

"We still have at least half-a-dozen of contracted world series regulars that will rejoin the rest of the squad for pre-season in August. Competition for places will be tough."

England face Romania, Georgia, Italy and France on Saturday with a final pool match against the Netherlands and the knock-out stages the following day.

England Sevens squad: John Brake, Chris Brightwell, Chris Cracknell, Ayoola Erinle, Andrew Higgins, Simon Hunt, Christian Lewis-Pratt, Tom Mitchell, Dan Norton, James Rodwell, Nick Royle, Rob Vickerman.

Ben Gollings in fine form for England Sevens

England beat South Africa 21-7 to win the plate at the Emirates Airline South Africa Sevens.

It was only the second time England had beaten the Boks in sevens on South African soil in what was a hyper-competitive plate competition.

England had to bounce back from their cup loss against winners New Zealand to beat Australia 24-5 in the plate semi final.

The last time an England side had beaten a South Africa side on their home patch was in 2003, but with Christian Wade (London Wasps), Worcester’s Jake Abbott, Ben Gollings (Gold Coast) and Isoa Damudamu (British Army) in inspired form Ben Ryan’s side ground out an impressive win, the biggest defeat Paul Treu’s side had faced in 80 matches.

England add 12 points to their World Series tally which puts them in third place behind Fiji and New Zealand respectively after reaching the Dubai cup semi final earlier this month.

England: Jake Abbott (Worcester Warriors), Kevin Barrett (capt, Saracens), Chris Brightwell (Birmingham & Solihull), Dan Caprice (Blackheath RFC), Chris Cracknell (Unattached), Isoa Damudamu (British Army), Ben Gollings (Gold Coast, Australia), Dan Norton (Bristol Rugby), James Rodwell (Moseley RFC), Nick Royle (Fylde RFC), Matt Turner (Bristol Rugby), Christian Wade (London Wasps)

England Sevens Emirates Airline South Africa Sevens results:

• December 11, England 42-0 Tunisia
• December 11, England 17-7 Argentina
• December 11, Scotland 19-29 England
• December 12, cup quarter final England 19-22 New Zealand
• December 12, plate semi final England 24-5 Australia
• December 12, plate final England 21-7 South Africa

Kevin Barrett in action for England Sevens

Kevin Barrett has been named captain for the Emirates Airline Dubai and South Africa Sevens (Dec 4-5 & 11-12).

After helping his club Saracens beat World Champions South Africa, 24-23 last month, the England scrum half will take the lead from last season’s IRB Sevens Player of the Year Ollie Phillips (Stade Francais).

Last season Barrett also helped England to win the cup trophies at the Wellington and London legs of the IRB Sevens World Series.

This Friday England will take on Russia, USA and Kenya on day one and Barrett is looking forward to leading his team to the field.

“I’m really excited. Ben (Ryan) gave me the news the other day and I felt very privileged but we have lots of leaders in this team like Ben Gollings (Gold Coast), Chris Cracknell, Isoa Damudamu (British Army) and James Rodwell (Moseley RFC) so I’m hoping I can call on all of them.” said Barrett.

England have been training hard since arriving in Dubai last week and this season Ryan welcomes the likes of U20s speedster Christian Wade (London Wasps) to his side as well as the return of Dan Caprice (Blackheath) and Dan Norton (Bristol Rugby).

Continued Barrett, “We have benefitted from coming out a bit earlier this year and today’s training session was one of the best we’ve had since we arrived.

“I’ve been playing sevens for a while now but to go out as captain on Friday will be a proud moment and I’m really looking forward to it.”

“Kev has been an integral part of the squad for the last two seasons and deserves the captaincy, he’s a model professional and an outstanding player.” concluded Ryan.

England Sevens squad for Dubai and South Africa

Jake Abbott (Worcester Warriors)

Kevin Barrett (capt, Saracens)

Chris Brightwell (Birmingham & Solihull)

Dan Caprice (Blackheath RFC)

Chris Cracknell (Unattached)

Isoa Damudamu (British Army)

Ben Gollings (Gold Coast, Australia)

Dan Norton (Bristol Rugby)

James Rodwell (Moseley RFC)

Nick Royle (Fylde RFC)

Matt Turner (Bristol Rugby)

Christian Wade (London Wasps)

Emirates Airline Dubai Sevens fixtures:

December 4, England v USA, kick off 10.04am local time (GMT+4)

December 4, England v Russia, kick off 1.40pm local time (GMT+4)

December 4, England v Kenya, kick off 6.52pm local time (GMT+4)

Emirates Airline South Africa Sevens fixtures:

December 11, England v Tunisia, kick off 12.04am local time (GMT +2)

December 11, England v Argentina, kick off 3.10pm local time (GMT +2)

December 11, Scotland v England, kick off 7.32pm local time (GMT +2)