NEWCASTLE Falcons coach John Fletcher last night backed fly-half Toby Flood to bounce back from the disappointment of missing out on next month's World Cup finals.

Jonny Wilkinson, Mathew Tait and Jamie Noon will all be involved in the tournament in France, but Flood was one of eight players to be axed from England's provisional squad on Monday when coach Brian Ashton named his final 30-man party.

The 22-year-old had figured prominently in spring's unsuccessful Six Nations campaign, but the writing had appeared to be on the wall when he failed to feature in either of England's World Cup warm-up games against Wales and France.

Flood will now return to pre-season training at Kingston Park and, while Fletcher admits he is understandably disappointed at his fate, the Falcons coach expects one of his leading play-makers to be back to his best in time for the start of the Guinness Premiership season.

"Toby is bitterly disappointed, understandably so, but he has taken it on the chin and shown great maturity in dealing with the situation," said Falcons coach Fletcher.

"He has already been back training with the Falcons squad and will now be added to our plans for the early part of the season, but he will remain on England's radar in the event of injury and they know they have a quality player here ready to step in."

Scotland head coach Frank Hadden claims next month's World Cup could suffer and his own squad could be left threadbare because of the rule allowing each country to take just 30 players to the tournament.

''There should be 33 or 34 players in the squad,'' said Hadden.

''As it is, there are huge elements of risk everywhere in the squad.

"The regulations say you can't bring anyone fresh in within 48 hours before your next match.

''So imagine if Kelly Brown were to go down ill the night before a match - as he did before the French game earlier this year -and you are already carrying a few injuries in the back row. You'd be stuffed - absolutely stuffed."