Northampton issue update on George Furbank after knock against Castres

Northampton will assess George Furbank over the coming days after the England star’s comeback was cut short in a 51-16 victory over Castres at Franklin’s Gardens.

Saints set up an Investec Champions Cup semi-final against Leinster in Dublin on May 3 after another highly impressive display against French opposition, crushing Castres a week after they dispatched Clermont in similarly conclusive fashion.

The win came at a cost, however, after wing George Hendy dislocated his shoulder in the fourth minute, leaving him with a battle to play again this season as well as threatening his availability for England’s summer tour to Argentina.

As a result of Hendy’s injury, Furbank stepped off the bench for his first appearance since suffering a fractured arm in December and lasted 51 minutes before being forced off himself.

Furbank ran in a try, set up two more and showed his mettle in defence, but having crossed in the 45th minute he rose to his feet in clear discomfort holding his bandaged right arm.

“George was dropped straight in and that’s tough to do. In an ideal world he wouldn’t have been on after three and a half minutes,” Saints director of rugby Phil Dowson said.

“He showed the class he has and his quality with the two assists for the try and in his ability to move the ball – all the parts of his game that you love him for.

“But he’s played a lot of minutes there and we’ve just tried to make sure we look after him because he gets sore and was blowing a bit.

“He’s got some ice on it and we’ll have a look at it to see how he feels. It’s hard to tell at this point.

“He’s had one full training week because he was ill last week, which is when we would have had some collision training.

“One full training week and you turn up the temperature in a big game in a quarter-final like that against some big fellas, it’s going to take a bang at some point.

“That’s the best thing for it to see where he’s at and hopefully he’ll be all right. He’ll ice up and we’ll talk to the physios to see how he is.”

Northampton’s prize for overwhelming Castres is a rematch of last season’s semi-final against Leinster when they were narrowly beaten at Croke Park after falling short with a late fightback.

The Irish province have looked unstoppable after sweeping aside Harlequins and Glasgow and Dowson is looking forward to taking on one of Europe’s heavyweights.

“I watched their game against Glasgow and it was incredibly impressive. Glasgow are a very good side, they’re URC champs, but Leinster were ruthless,” Dowson said.

“We’ll look at that over the next couple of weeks, but we’ve got Newcastle on a short turn around and our league position is a frustration for us all at the moment.

“There’s clearly world-class talent in that Leinster group and they’re clearly playing well, but they’re the challenges we signed up for.”