Rising-star Tom Homer has the skill set for international rugby

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The interim coach has been conducting 15 v 15 training this week to give fringe players the chance to stake their claim for a starting berth against their opposition number.

And the inclusion of three uncapped players in England's Six Nations opener has put the Aviva Premiership's young stars on alert.

One of these is London Irish rising star Tom Homer, who is 29 points clear as the league's top scorer this season.

Irish head coach Toby Booth has already tipped Homer to break into the England squad soon and the full-back also feels he has the right game for the international stage.

"I've got the right skill set to play top-level rugby," said the 21-year-old.

"It's one of my life-long ambitions to play international rugby. You just hope that you can catch the coaches' eyes.

"My goal-kicking has been pretty good this season so I'm chuffed with that. I need to work on other parts of my game to get international recognition; my game management, but my understanding. But that will improve the more time I spend with (attack coach) Mike Catt and (fly-half) Dan Bowden. For the moment, I'm just concentration on Irish though."

Next on the agenda for Homer then is the challenge of facing London rivals Harlequins on Saturday.

The Aviva Premiership leaders won the first game of the season 29-24 at Twickenham but Homer believes Quins will be disadvantaged this time because of the number of players missing through England duty. Among Quins' missing number will be skipper Chris Robshaw, centre Jordan Turner Hall and full-back Mike Brown.

"This isn't a bad time to be playing against them," added Homer. "They have a few players at Six Nations which affects them more than us."

Tom Homer was speaking on behalf of Aviva - proud title sponsors of Premiership Rugby. They are undertaking a project to find the Aviva Premiership's 'most passionate fans' and continue their investigation at the Stoop on Saturday www.avivapremiership.com/passionate