Mitchell an injury blow for England
ALEX MITCHELL is set to miss the entire Six Nations, leaving England short of experienced scrum-half cover for the rest of the tournament.
The 26-year-old was ruled out of Saturday’s Calcutta Cup clash at Murrayfield after injuring his knee in training.
The first-choice No.9 during the World Cup, Mitchell is expected to be back for Northampton’s end-of-season title run-in and Champions Cup campaign.
Danny Care will be winning his 99th cap at the weekend against Scotland and is favourite to start in Edinburgh.
But behind him England are lacking real Test knowhow with record-cap holder Ben Youngs retiring from international rugby after the World Cup and with tough games against Scotland, Ireland and France to come.
Bench
Bath’s Ben Spencer has not played since coming off the bench briefly in the 2019 World Cup final after flying out as cover that week.
And Bristol’s Harry Randall, called into the squad when Mitchell pulled out, won the last of his six caps in 2022.
Leicester are still waiting for Jack van Poortvliet to recover from the ankle injury, leaving England exposed if Care gets injured.
England joined up at their Bagshot base on Sunday night with Steve Borthwick’s coaching brains trust trying to come up with ways of neutralising Scotland flyhalf Finn Russell.
But defence coach Felix Jones warned there is more to the Scots, who may have the versatile Blair Kinghorn back for the weekend, than their No.10.
Jones said: “Obviously there is Finn Russell’s passing game, his ability to see space and manipulate defenders but they also have some guys that have real game-breaking ability, Duhan van der Merwe, Blair Kinghorn, there are a whole host of guys there that can break a game wide open.
“It is not only their tactical approach but their skillset is significant.
“It is not just their kicking game, their running game is extremely dangerous and full of threats.”