By Gary Baker

CHARLIE Sharples has vowed to fight for his England international place, saying: “I have a lot of rugby left in me”.

Stroud-based Sharples said he is pleased to see his club colleagues flying the Gloucester flag in national coach Stuart Lancaster’s squad but admitted his own selection is ‘very much out of my control’.

Clubmate Jonny May has played well on the England wing at the moment although he was tested in defence during the nation’s 47-17 Twickenham victory over Italy last weekend.

And with Bath’s Anthony Watson coming into his own on the other wing, and scoring a try against Wales in the first RBS 6 Nations Championships outing in Cardiff, the route looks blocked at the moment for Sharples to add to his four England caps.

However, he vowed: “My aspiration as always is to play for England. The only thing you can do is play well for your club. So my focus is to get Gloucester where they want to be and, if we do that, it means we will be winning games and, if we do that as well, you will put up for (England) selection.”

Sharples made his England debut against Wales on August 6 in the pre-World Cup warm-up clash at Twickenham as a second-half replacement for Manu Tuilagi and made the last of his four international appearances on November 17 2012 in the 20-14 defeat to Australia.

But he added: “I am only 25 years old and I still have a lot of rugby left in me, so you never can give up hope but a lot of it is out of my hands.”

He is, though, proud of the way May has grasped his chance after a dazzling Autumn Test Series back in November.

“It was good to see him do well, particularly in the Autumn. He is playing good rugby and hopefully he will continue that form and flourish in the 6 Nations. It is good to see him (and centre Billy Twelvetrees) from the club get international recognition.”

Sharples returned to action for Gloucester last Friday at Welford Road, Leicester, in the 18-15 Aviva Premiership defeat after suffering a nasty injury to his leg against Saracens on January 9 that needed an operation to clean out some damage.

But if there are blessing in disguise, then the month break that Sharples has had since then allowed him to re-charge batteries which were under strain, having played most of the Cherry and Whites fixtures until then through the season.

Now he is ready to continue push onto the last day of the campaign with Gloucester battling on two fronts as they strive to get away from the bottom four in the Aviva Premiership and look at the European option as one of the favourites to repeat their success of 2006 when they beat London Irish to win the Challenge Cup. Gloucester face Connacht in a Kingsholm quarter-final of this year’s Challenge Cup on Friday April 3.

Although Sharples lives in Stroud, he still has fond memories of the seasons he spent at Dursley RFC as a junior. He added: “I was down at the club in Dursley in the summer for a corporate thing. I still see a couple of the old boys.”