Chris Ashton in action© Aurelien Meunier/Getty Images

Do you know how to play rugby? Have you got (or can you lay your hands on) an English passport? If so, congratulations on your naming in Stuart Lancaster's initial squad for the Rugby World Cup. Many were called, few will be chosen.

The England coach has selected fully 50 players for a training squad, the maximum he is allowed, and nobody could accuse him of not covering all possible bases. If you like rugby players, you really are well served by Wednesday's announcement: there are old ones, new ones, ones you have only sort of heard of, and ones that you thought must have actually retired and would only ever be seen again on Strictly Come Dancing.

Among the party is Chris Ashton, whose England career appeared to be over when he was left out of the last two Six Nations squads. He's back, back, back: which is great news for him, but does it suggest a lack of clear thinking on the part of the England management?

His selection is one of several that shows a tendency to hedge bets. After all, if he wasn't good enough for the last two Six Nations, what has now changed?

We understand that's Lancaster rates Ashton's consistency (although not enough to have him in the squad for recent tournaments), typical of what you might call a safety-first squad. How could it not be, when he has selected such a cast of thousands? By weight of numbers alone, there must be England's best XV in there somewhere, but has Lancaster actually made it easier or harder for himself to unearth the correct team?

England's problem in rugby for as long as anyone can remember has not been a lack of effort or stolid preparation, but an absence of flair and match-winning creative freedom. Is it possible that having so many people at the auction stages will just hamstring creativity? Would it not be better to have skipped straight forward to Judges' Houses and focused on the few players we do have with the X Factor?

That Ashton's selection is something of a surprise tells you how far the 28-year-old's star has fallen from four years ago, when he went into the World Cup as one of England's most feted players. His is the sort of turning-back-the-clock squad selection that leaves a national coach, in any sport, open to accusations of dithering.

England cricket, for comparison, recently found that returning to a player whose time had appeared over, in the case of Jonathan Trott, can end up achieving little other than blocking the route to the team for the men of tomorrow.

So Adam Lyth, who missed out on a chance to bed in against the modest (not "mediocre": for goodness's sake don't say that, they might all turn into Curtly and Viv) West Indian attack as a result of Trott's return, now has to learn the international ropes against New Zealand's skilful bowlers from Thursday in swing-friendly weather and then deal with the fearsome Australians later in the summer. He will take to the field as England's 666th Test Cricketer. What could possibly go wrong, in England's summer of cricket hell?

So if you're not one of the Lancaster 50, is that it? Not necessarily.

Christian Wade and Andy Goode© Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

You might think that 50 rugby players would be enough to be going on with, but Lancaster has said that exclusion from today's party does not mean that a player won't be in the World Cup. Many had expected the exciting Wasps wing Christian Wade to make the rough cut, but Lancaster says that Wade (and Dave Ewers) will be involved in the Barbarians match on May 31, and although "they just missed out on the initial selection [they] could come back in further down the line".

Obviously Lancaster doesn't want to lock himself into a story if he does suddenly decide to pull an unknown out of thin air this early Autumn. If you've named 50, why not have the officially sanctioned squad and a few more in another shadow squad, then? Where do you draw the line for this summer's preparation, which includes a trip to Colorado for altitude training?

The last time we saw an England coach take the Family Von Trapp route was when Fabio Capello hauled England's finest footballing bottlers up an Austrian mountain to prepare for a historically hopeless World Cup campaign in South Africa. He picked Adam Johnson, Michael Dawson and Tom Huddlestone for the 30-man line-up: respectively, two previously uncapped players and one surprise. None of them then made the final 23, even if Dawson was an emergency replacement for the injured Rio Ferdinand once the squad had left for the finals. They were just making up the over-subscribed numbers in a bloated squad of 30.

Oh, and Theo Walcott, the young surprise who had gone along for the ride four years earlier, was this time left out. Who needs experience, eh?

England's failings as a rugby team have traditionally stemmed from rigidity and a lack of invention. Why not identify the creative talents, back them and give them freedom to express themselves, rather than hedging the bets by picking as many solid pros as possible and hoping something emerges? As it stands, it feels like "Your country needs you, and you, and you and you and you and you..."