The 26-year-old is only under consideration as a midfield option, not at blindside flanker where he played his best rugby for Bath last season, and starts between fly-half Owen Farrell and outside centre Henry Slade.
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Burgess is in World Cup contention despite failing to convince in the number 12 jersey at club level, but Lancaster insists the powerful Yorkshireman deserves his chance to argue his case for selection in the 31-man squad that must be named by August 31.
"We will see if Sam can translate what he's done in training, which is clearly good otherwise I wouldn't have taken this chance to look at him against France," Lancaster said.
"I'm open minded about what Sam can do - this isn't the team that's going to play against Fiji in our first World Cup game, this is the team to look at options.
"We need a balance in our backline, a balance of ball players, carriers and finishers. Sam ticks the ball carrier box.
"And obviously there's the physical nature of backlines and you need to look at that element, particularly defensively.
"It's an option for us to look at and it will be interesting to see how well Sam goes."
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