Oxford University will provide the opposition when England train at their Pennyhill Park base in Surrey on Friday.

Dark Blues’ director of rugby Steve Hill said his players were very excited at being invited to help Martin Johnson’s men prepare for the autumn internationals.

The students will test out England’s attacking and defensive play, while learning some moves that could help them in the Nomura Varsity Match on December 10.

“If your country phones you up and says ‘can you help us out’, it is a great honour,” said Hill.

“They wanted a team to go and do an opposed training session.We were only too pleased to do it.

“It will be fascinating for us just to watch them train.

“For our younger players especially, it is a fantastic opportunity.

“To train with the likes of Jonny Wilkinson and Shane Geraghty will be great.”

The chance came partly due to links with the university.

Hill was at Loughborough University with England forwards coach John Wells, while backs coach Brian Smith is an Oxford Blue.

Oxford University will have a one-hour session with the England players, whose next match is against Australia on Saturday, November 7.

Hill said: “We are going to be learning some of the Australian attack moves and running them against the England defence.

“Mike Ford is going to teach us some of the England attack moves to defend against.

“I think it is going to be a very fresh new thing and the boys are very excited about it.”

With England players having picked up so many injuries in recent months, the Dark Blues will hope they don’t add to that tomorrow.

And some students might be concerned about harming their own Varsity prospects.

But Hill stressed: “You can pick up knocks every day in training.”

The session should sharpen up Oxford ahead of Saracens’ visit on Monday when they will need to improve on their victory over Esher.

Of that game, Hill said: “We made eight changes to give people a start and it took us a while to get comfortable.

“It was a much stronger Esher side than last year.

“There were, however, more positives than negatives.”

Hill stressed that the Dark Blues had a number of strong players to come back.

He added: “We have got five matches before the Varsity and we will see much more consistency in selection.”

ENGLAND and Wasps fly half Danny Cipriani will be meeting youngsters at Wallingford RFC on Thursday.