by Center Ollie Lawrence is set to be ruled out for a significant part of the Guinness Six Nations Championship, leaving England in a familiar midfield crisis.
Telegraph Sport understands Lawrence suffered a hip injury in Sunday’s 31-19 Champions Cup defeat to Toulouse. The initial prognosis was that the lay-off could be up to eight weeks but Bath are hopeful the 24-year-old could return sooner as he undergoes further tests. England’s Six Nations campaign kicks off in Italy on February 3 before hosting Wales at Twickenham on February 10. After a week’s break, they face Scotland in the Calcutta Cup on February 24th before finishing their campaign at home against Ireland on March 9th and away. to France in Lyon on March 16.
To add to England coach Steve Borthwick’s woes, Harlequins center Oscar Beard has withdrawn from the training squad as has Sale Sharks hook Luke Cowan-Dickie.
Max Ojomoh and Will Muir came back to replace the trio, as well as Newcastle hooker Jamie Blamire, who will head to England’s warm-weather training camp in Girona, Spain.
Borthwick will feel the loss of Lawrence keenly. The Bath center has been excellent this season and prefers to start at inside centre, partnering Henry Slade. However, his withdrawal could force Borthwick to hand Ojomoh or Northampton’s Fraser Dingwall a start at center for England’s trip to Rome.
The uncapped pair are the only players in the 36-man squad who have played regularly at inside centre, although Exeter’s Slade has filled in there before. Regardless, it means Borthwick faces another overhaul of his midfield, which has been an ongoing problem for England over the past 20 years.
His midfield forwards from the World Cup finals: Owen Farrell, Manu Tuilagi and Joe Marchant are unavailable for the start of the Six Nations campaign. Sale hopes Tuilagi could recover from a groin injury during the tournament.
The uncapped Beard suffered concussion in Harlequins’ win over Ulster and Cowan-Dickie won a knock against La Rochelle on Sunday.
On Monday, Borthwick was still gathering fitness updates at the launch of the Six Nations in Dublin and expressed his frustration at the flow of information from Premier League clubs.
“We’re still gathering all this information now,” Borthwick said. “One of the challenges for the last Six Nations is that the reporting systems between club and country are not what they should be and will not be what they will be next year, but this year has not changed spent until this year.
“Next year when we have improved EPS [Elite Player Squad contracts], we will be in a better situation. At the moment we are dealing with information we don’t know as quickly as we can, which is disappointing but we will have to continue to do the best we can.
“I don’t want to exaggerate that. But we are in the same situation we were finding out for the first time last night. It is not what it should be. From now on we will have a new agreement in place and we aim to have all the information about the amounts and training loads of the players, the same systems they have with medical information, all these things.
“It should be much more aligned. I think what has happened here is that everyone has inherited a system that is not fully aligned. What we aim to do from next year onwards is that we have a complete alignment so that the club game is successful and the national team is successful.”
England’s overworked players are a growing concern
Borthwick admits he will struggle to fill the fitness gap heading into the Six Nations as Telegraph Sport can reveal a huge discrepancy in playing time compared to other countries.
Borthwick taxed England’s conditioning levels in his first campaign in charge a year ago – a view endorsed by the Rugby Union Football Review in a third tournament two wins in a row.
England joined Girona on Tuesday for a warm-weather training camp but will have just five full training sessions ahead of their opener against Italy in Rome on February 3, where Borthwick is aiming for an explosive start.
That will be more difficult with the amount of games England’s players have since the World Cup quarter-finals. Statistics released by Opta show that England’s 36-man squad played an average of 712 minutes per player. The next highest is 589 minutes per French player. Compared to the centrally managed Irish squad, the England team have played three more games per man.
“If you look at the number of minutes England players play it’s pretty clear that hasn’t changed,” said Borthwick. “If you look from the quarter-final weekend to what the English players have played against others, the French players have played a lot. The main thing I will say is that the players are matchable. So that’s a big plus. Generally I will try to look on the positive side and I have a group of players that are compatible. They are ready to go.”
Looking at individual minutes played since the quarter-finals, seven of the top 10 players are English players, led by Exeter center Henry Slade with 1109 minutes ahead of Harlequins No. , carries and hit rucks. Both played in all 14 of their club’s games without a break. Telegraph Sport has revealed a number of high-profile players are at “breaking point” with no break in the structure of the new season before the Premier League goes into lockdown for seven weeks after this weekend’s round of fixtures.
Even second-row Maro Itoje, who was briefly on loan at Saracens after the World Cup, has played in 12 games and is third for key appearances (510) meaning Borthwick will have to ease his training schedule in Girona. “Look at someone like Maro, who I think is playing really well, he’s played a lot of games and he doesn’t often play less than 80 minutes every time he goes on the pitch,” said Borthwick. “If you compare that to someone in Ireland that’s different and that’s fine.
“I am clear about this because I need to know where the players are and how hard I can push. As a coach I am demanding because I want to have the best team and push us but I need to be aware of where my players are coming from and if my players are playing 80 minutes every week, and every week, and every week it’s going to be a different training camp that we’re going into.”
Data given to Borthwick suggests there has been an increase in the number of players in the Premier League, but as he points out that is just one aspect of the fitness he needs from his Six Nations squad. “I also know that the Six Nations is a real competition, a breakdown game,” Borthwick said. “So what you need to do is make sure we’re getting that right and the level of repetition around the contact area. So I think there is definitely a move forward.”
