Alex Dombrandt a doubt for tour of Australia

Harlequins No.8 Alex Dombrandt is a doubt for the England’s tour of Australia, after it was revealed that the all-action backrow suffered an injury in training.

England suffered the setback for their non-cap international against the Barbarians after Dombrandt was ruled out of the Twickenham clash with a knee problem.

Dombrandt sustained the injury in training on Friday and was replaced at number eight by Callum Chick.

It placed a question mark over the Harlequins back row’s participation in next month’s tour to Australia with Eddie Jones naming his touring squad on Monday morning.

“It’s all about opportunity,” said head coach Jones. “This is a practise game for Australia and an opportunity for some young guys to show us what they’re capable of under almost Test-like conditions. “We’ll see whether they’re ready for the next jump.

“Last-minute impressions are always important. We always talk about the teabag theory. You get your tea bag out of the packet and you never really know how good it is until you put the hot water into it.

“And on Sunday some of these young guys are going to be in hot water, so we’ll see how good the tea is.”

England will want to avoid a third successive defeat, but Jones insists the outcome has reduced significance.

“You have to remember it is an England XV game. It’s not a Test match, it’s a different situation. It’s a non-capped game. We are experimenting in the game,” Jones said.

“We are looking at players who are capable of playing Test rugby and we are looking at doing a couple of different things tactically to see where we can take it and see if it suits the strengths of the players.”

England will travel to Australia for their three Test series after today’s game in Twickenham. They will play Australia in Perth (2 July), Brisbane (9 July) and Sydney (16 July).