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Huge blow for England as Alex Mitchell ruled out versus Scotland
By Liam Heagney
First-choice England scrum-half Alex Mitchell has been ruled out of next Saturday’s round three Guinness Six Nations game away to Scotland.
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Head coach Steve Borthwick named his squad of 36 on Sunday evening for the trip to Edinburgh and there were two changes from the group that assembled last Wednesday for the mini-camp that culminated in Friday’s open training session in front of 10,00 fans at Twickenham.
Mitchell, who was originally an emergency Rugby World Cup call-up in August following the long-term injury to Jack van Poortvliet, has started in eight of England’s last 10 matches.
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He dominated the No9 jersey at France 2023, making five starts in the seven-game campaign, and has also been Borthwick’s starter in the opening rounds of the current championship away to Italy and at home to Wales.
However, despite being pictured training last Friday at Twickenham, he won’t be available for next weekend’s trip to BT Murrayfield due to a knee injury that will require further investigation in the coming days to ascertain the length of rehabilitation required.
His place in the squad has been taken by Harry Randall, who last Thursday was named in the squad of 27 for the February 25 England A game versus Portugal at Leicester.
Randall, who will now contest the scrum-half berth with Danny Care and Ben Spencer, is one of two changes to the Six Nations squad as Ollie Lawrence, who spent last week with England rehabilitating a hip injury, has been promoted into the official squad with Will Muir, his uncapped Bath teammate, dropping out.
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These latest changes mean that Borthwick heads into the Scotland match week with a squad of 36 that has five changes from the squad that assembled for the round two win over Wales.
Luke Cowan-Dickie and George Martin were last week brought into the forwards, the pair taking the spots of Jamie Blamire and Tom Pearson who were named in the A team squad. Midfielder Manu Tuilagi was also recalled last week, taking over from Oscar Beard.
The rehabilitating Lawrence and Marcus Smith were listed as unofficial fallow week squad members and while Lawrence has now been included in Borthwick’s squad to face Scotland, Smith will maintain his rehabilitation role.
The omitted Muir and Beard are now expected to feature in the England A team squad which will be updated on Tuesday when George Skivington’s group assemble at Loughborough University.
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England squad (vs Scotland, Saturday)
Forwards (20):
Ollie Chessum (Leicester Tigers)
Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers)
Alex Coles (Northampton Saints)
Luke Cowan-Dickie (Sale Sharks)
Chandler Cunningham-South (Harlequins)
Ben Curry (Sale Sharks)
Theo Dan (Saracens)
Alex Dombrandt (Harlequins)
Ben Earl (Saracens)
Charlie Ewels (Bath Rugby)
Ellis Genge (Bristol Bears)
Jamie George (Saracens)
Joe Heyes (Leicester Tigers)
Maro Itoje (Saracens)
Joe Marler (Harlequins)
George Martin (Leicester Tigers)
Beno Obano (Bath Rugby)
Ethan Roots (Exeter Chiefs)
Will Stuart (Bath Rugby)
Sam Underhill (Bath Rugby)
Backs (16):
Danny Care (Harlequins)
Elliot Daly (Saracens)
Fraser Dingwall (Northampton Saints)
Immanuel Feyi-Waboso (Exeter Chiefs)
George Ford (Sale Sharks)
Tommy Freeman (Northampton Saints)
George Furbank (Northampton Saints)
Ollie Lawrence (Bath Rugby)
Max Ojomoh (Bath Rugby)
Harry Randall (Bristol Bears)
Tom Roebuck (Sale Sharks)
Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs)
Fin Smith (Northampton Saints)
Ben Spencer (Bath Rugby)
Freddie Steward (Leicester Tigers)
Manu Tuilagi (Sale Sharks)
- Marcus Smith (Harlequins) will join the squad to continue his rehabilitation from injury.
Agreed .
Spencer the form player with Care and Mitchell right behind .
England really do have bad record with selection Too many players hanging on being selected on past record rather than form
And why do they keep persevering with Manu.
Yes he is a good player , when he is not injured and the back line has to readjust each time he comes back .
England had the chance to play the Nothants 9,10 12 against Italy and wales. But chose to play a mix .
The problem has been for quite a while with the poor selection and coaching . Farrell really shows up Borthwick with the small amount of players to select from but boy does he gets the best from them
Plus ca change , plus la meme chose .
It will be Care, Ford , Manu .
Nothing to learn there then . So much for new game plan .
“Huge blow”!!!!!
I’ll take an eighth of whatever you have been smoking.
There’s hardly a fag paper between Mitch, Care and Spencer, in fact many a decent judge would roll the dice with Spencer who has been in great form for Bath.
You could play Randall, James, Quirke or even Cairns for no significant loss of quality. As with most positions we have a surfeit of good and a paucity of World Class.
It is a big blow because Mitchell is in form and has significantly more game time under the belt with this current team having played through the world cup and start of 6N.
There are other good scrum halves available but are they going to hit the ground running or will they take a while to bed in and get up to speed?
We will see. Someone may come in and do really well but to have an in form player in a key position get injured is not likely to improve our chances.
Agree Clive, but England coaches have history with 9s. When Dan Robson was the best 9 in England he was only chosen as back up to Youngs who was not the best 9. Spencer is the form man and if Gatland was in charge we would have a very different looking England because Gatland is not afraid to make changes or pursue youth and in form players. Selection for England remains the biggest stumbling block.