Steve Borthwick will captain England on their New Zealand tour next month. The Bath lock has been handed leadership duties in the absence of Phil Vickery, who misses the matches against the All Blacks in Auckland and Christchurch with a knee injury.

Borthwick, capped 37 times, has recent experience of the role after acting as captain for England's RBS SIx Nations victory over Italy three months ago. He takes charge of a 32-man squad - the first of Martin Johnson's reign as England manager - that includes six uncapped players.

The newcomers are Danny Care, the Harlequins scrum half, Jason Hobson, the Bristol prop, Dylan Hartley, the Northampton hooker and London Irish trio, Topsy Ojo, David Paice and Nick Kennedy.

Vickery apart, other absentees who took part in the Six Nations campaign include Jonny Wilkinson, who is recovering from shoulder surgery, Simon Shaw and Mark Regan.

But the major selection casualties appear to be Gloucester backs Iain Balshaw and Lesley Vainikolo. Balshaw started all five of England's Six Nations games, while Vainikolo, the former Bradford Bulls wing, made his debut off the bench against Wales and kept his place for the remaining four fixtures.

Paul Sackey has been named in the squad despite suffering a knee injury during Wasps' Guinness Premiership victory over Leeds Carnegie at the weekend.

Vickery could return to action for Wasps in the Guinness Premiership final - should they qualify - but Johnson and Rob Andrew, the RFU's elite rugby director, were not prepared to risk him in New Zealand.

“Phil is trying desperately hard to play again this season but we felt it wasn’t the right call to go on an arduous tour,” Johnson said. “Simon Shaw has got a number of medical issues as you would imagine after a long career and long, long season. We felt it was best if he had a good off season and got himself in the best shape for another long season next year.

“It gives opportunities to other guys in that position to get into the number four shirt and establish themselves. If we come back from New Zealand with guys we know we can trust to play international rugby, it puts us in a position of strength.”

The All Blacks have lost to the European club game key players such as Carl Hayman, Luke McAlister and Chris Jack. Johnson still expects a tough challenge but he is confident England will be competitive.

“It is as tough a tour as you will ever go on, going to New Zealand,” he said. “They have lost a lot of players but there never been a bad All Black team in the history of the game.

“They will have a few guys in there who weren’t starters in previous seasons but they will all have international experience and they will be a formidable side.