Redpath to miss summer tour after knee surgery

Cameron Redpath will play no part in England’s summer tour of South Africa next month after undergoing surgery on an anterior cruciate ligament injury.

The Sale Sharks centre/ stand-off, son of former Scotland captain Bryan Redpath, had been due to travel with Eddie Jones’ squad but will now spend the majority of the 2018-19 campaign working his way back from the injury.

Redpath is understood to have sustained the damage earlier in the season, in a training session with Sale.

Redpath snr, who is currently Scotland Under-20 coach and in France preparing for the junior World Cup, is still hopeful that his son could switch allegiances to play for Scotland at full international level.

The 18-year-old, who was born in France while his father played for Narbonne, has held talks with Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend but has also trained with the England first team squad on numerous occasions over the past season and represented them at Under-20 level.

Meanwhile Chris Ashton will make a Twickenham return on Sunday when the Barbarians tackle England.

England international wing Ashton, who has won 39 caps but not played Test rugby since 2014, features at full-back for the Baa-baas. Ashton’s Toulon colleague Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe captains a team that also includes Scotland stand-off Finn Russell and Wales flanker Justin Tipuric.

Other starters include Newcastle centre Josh Matavesi,gloucesterpropjohn Afoa and La Rochelle’s New Zealand international back-row forward Victor Vito, while Scotland’s Greig Laidlaw will start on the bench.

The Baa-baas have made a late change in their squad with South Africa international lock Flip van der Merwe being sidelined by suspension, so Joe Tekori provides second-row bench cover.

Baa-baas head coach Pat Lam said: “It’s an exciting challenge to bring together a side in five days, but everything we’ve done has been about improving our chances of winning this game.”