Otley RUFC have five players currently touring Europe with the England Counties squad.

They played Romania A on Tuesday in Constanta and won narrowly 26-24.

They are now set to play the full Romanian side in Bucharest on Saturday and France Amateurs on June 24.

All 26 members of the squad were expected to appear at some stage in the warm-up game against Romania A before facing a Romanian national side ranked 17th in the world on Saturday.

The Otley players in the squad are scrum-half Andy Brown, back rowers Ed Thorpe and Nathan Bland, second row Jason Oakes and winger Mark Kirkby.

"We've picked a strong side and we hope the opportunity will also be there for the replacements to come on, express themselves and put themselves into contention for a test spot," said head coach Bob Hood, the Yarnbury club coach.

The England team is drawn from players outside the Zurich Premiership who took part in this season's Tetley's County Championship.

Army lock Lee Soper is in the side less than six weeks after returning from active service in Iraq.

"The spine of the side is strong at eight, nine and ten and we've got some interesting combinations outside," said Hood, who coached the side on last year's three-match trip to Chile.

There were seven full internationals in the Romania A side, four of them from the Farul Constanta club who are hosting the game on the Black Sea coast.