Golf-Europe include five Ryder Cup players for Seve Trophy

Sept 25 (Reuters) - Continental Europe included five Ryder Cup players on Wednesday in their team to play Britain and Ireland in next week's Seve Trophy. Jose Maria Olazabal, captain of Europe's Ryder Cup winning-team in 2012, named Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts, Peter Hanson of Sweden and Italian Francesco Molinari. Denmark's Thomas Bjorn, who recently won the European Masters, is also in the team along with Spain's Miguel Angel Jimenez. They will be joined at St-Nom-La Breteche Golf Club in France by Finland's Mikko Ilonen and Italian Matteo Manassero, who have played in the event before. Frenchman Gregory Bourdy, Dutchman Joost Luiten and Dane Thorbjorn Olesen will make their debuts. Sam Torrance leads Britain and Ireland who have handed debuts to four players. English trio Tommy Fleetwood, David Lynn and Simon Khan, and Scotland's Stephen Gallacher join up with the experienced Paul Lawrie, Paul Casey and Torrance. Chris Wood, undefeated in the Seve Trophy in 2009, was included along with Marc Warren, Jamie Donaldson and Scott Jamieson. "I think we have a very strong team this year with a good mix of players with Ryder Cup experience and some exciting, talented younger players such as Matteo, Joost and Thorbjorn," Olazabal said. Torrance is captaining in the Seve Trophy for the first time. "I think we have got a good blend of players in the team, and I'm really looking forward to working with all of them," he said. Continental Europe won the first Seve Trophy 13 years ago but Britain & Ireland have won the last six matches. Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose, Graeme McDowell, Luke Donald, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter, the leading Britons in the rankings, decided not to play in the event. (Reporting by Ian Perkins, editing by Ed Osmond)