England’s Twickenham autumn series, beginning with Australia and carrying on with Argentina and New Zealand, is less than seven weeks away and the damage that may be inflicted during that intervening time would make Lancaster avert his gaze if he were not the man in charge.
There are three more Premiership fixtures before two in the farewell European Cup for more damage to be inflicted. Lancaster’s relief by the time his squad members are excused the league programme one week before the Wallabies may well know no bounds.
It actually took only one weekend, the first. He lost Lions flanker Tom Croft for the season with a serious knee injury that seemed innocuous when he did it for Leicester against Worcester. Croft, who missed most of the last campaign with a broken neck, will not play again this season.
Then Lancaster discovered that centre Brad Barritt, a constant midfield presence since the post-World Cup change of coaching regime, had belatedly needed a foot operation – an injury that had ruled out the back-end of last season but not a Lions call-up before flaring up for Saracens against London Irish. Barritt’s recovery will need three months.
It hardly feels as if England have been third in the Test rankings for the past month. Their status was elevated not by their own deeds but by Australia’s inability to win until their one-point defeat of Argentina last Saturday, though that left the International Board list unchanged.
Among others, Lancaster was already unable to assess full-back Alex Goode, who is aiming to return next month from the shoulder injury that removed him from England’s June Tests in Argentina.
The severity of the shoulder injury suffered by lock Courtney Lawes in the game between Northampton and Harlequins is still not known. Scrum-half Ben Youngs, fly-half Toby Flood and centre Manu Tuilagi have yet to turn out for Leicester.
Article source: http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/Rugby-Union-Stoke-time-click-says-skipper-Chris/story-19753246-detail/story.html
Stuart Lancaster is badly hit by England injuries
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