Tony Smith, the England coach, has defended his stance over refusing to name a 40-strong provisional squad for the World Cup in Australia this autumn, a requirement by organisers that he described as a farce. He saw no point in revealing the names, which he said had been compiled at random merely to satisfy the regulation.

Smith was criticised by Tas Baitieri, the tournament operations manager, for not going public with his squad and that by withholding the names on the list it could affect advance ticket sales. But Smith said that it would have been more farcical had he gone public with the squad he gave organisers.

“We submitted 40 names almost randomly to the World Cup people," Smith said. "They’re all true names, but it was purely to satisfy their requirement. There was no rule saying we had to publicly name them.

“Why we had to give 40 names so far out from the tournament, I’ve no idea. I felt it was a bit of farce when Australia announced 46 names and Papua New Guinea 49 names.

“We’ve seen some names duplicated in squads and Bradford’s Tame Tupou being named by Tonga when he won’t even be fit until February after a knee reconstruction. We’ve got relevant information on a lot more than 40 players and I won’t be restricting myself until such time as we name the final 24.”

England have legal worries over two probable squad members, with Leon Pryce, of St Helens, bailed to appear before Bradford magistrates on September 4 on assault charges and Gareth Raynor, of Hull, bailed to answer further inquiries in early October about alleged counterfeit ink cartridges.

"They’re matters for the law," Smith said. "If and when there’s anything for us to deal with, we will.”