Jamie George© David Rogers/Getty Images

Saracens hooker Jamie George has vowed to take his England chance after he was included as a last-minute replacement for the suspended Dylan Hartley in their World Cup training squad.

Hartley's four-match ban for his head-butt ironically on George sees him ruled out of England's three warm-up matches and their World Cup opener against Fiji. The ban forced Lancaster to re-evaluate his hooker options and after George missed out in the original selection, he was then brought in to replace Hartley.

George celebrated the call-up by scoring a try in Saturday's Aviva Premiership final and helped Saracens to their second title since 2011. For George his focus now shifts to international duties where he will vie with Tom Youngs, Luke Cowan-Dickie and Rob Webber for a spot in the final 31-man party. "You have to feel for him," George said of Hartley. "It is very difficult circumstances that he has got himself in. I have no hard feelings towards him. It was in the heat of the moment and it was something I am sure he will regret.

"But it has given me this opportunity and I am going to try and take it as well as I can. I have got to make the most of the opportunity I have got. I am just going to get my head down and try to work as hard as I can. Hopefully, I can develop as a player and if that happens then anything can happen.

"I can't control selection and all the rest of it, but what I can control is trying to develop myself, trying to develop the way I play and learn from the amazing people around me."

For George the call-up came at an end of a whirlwind few days where he saw his England World Cup dreams quashed only to then be reprieved a few days on.

"It has been pretty manic, pretty crazy," George said. "Graham Rowntree rang me before the squad was going to be announced and just said it was a close call but I wasn't going to be involved. It was very disappointing but at the same time I understood the reasons behind it.

"Mark McCall [Saracens rugby director] then rang me after the semi-final and just said it was going to be announced that I was going to be in the squad and how proud he was of me. That was probably one of the best phone calls I have ever received.

"We have got a wealth of very good hookers in the country. You could see that with the squad selection and I just needed to make sure that I kept playing as well as I could. To win a trophy and then go into camp obviously gives you a spring in your step. Hopefully, I have gained respect of some of the guys there already, and if I haven't then that is my aim during the first couple of weeks I am in camp."