Category: Rugby Union

• Bath flanker Pepper injured ankle at Gloucester on Friday

• Bristol’s Van Rensburg advised to rest after two concussions

England’s head coach, Steve Borthwick, said he will be monitoring this weekend’s domestic Prem games with some trepidation. Already he has lost at least two potentially key squad members for the entire autumn period in the form of Guy Pepper and Benhard van Rensburg, with doubts still hanging over his first-choice fly-half, Fin Smith, and fresh injury uncertainty emerging on virtually a daily basis.

Pepper’s involvement always looked improbable from the moment he sustained a nasty-looking ankle injury against Gloucester last Friday. The young Bath flanker will be sidelined for several weeks, as will the Bristol centre Van Rensburg who has been advised to rest and recuperate after two heavy concussions within the past three months.

Nations Championship games against Australia and Japan should be the end of experimentation for Steve Borthwick

Even on the most serene days no one would describe coaching England as a relaxing gig. With his side’s opening November Test looming on Sunday week, Steve Borthwick is already faced with assorted injury-related complications at precisely the moment he needs to start finding lasting answers to a range of fundamental selection questions.

The untimely training field absence of Fin Smith, pencilled in to be England’s starting No 10, is a prime example. With the two leading midfield candidates to face Australia – Seb Atkinson and Bernhard Janse van Rensburg – also unable to train this week, Smith’s calf injury has materialised at the worst possible moment. Add the Bath flanker Guy Pepper, who limped off against Gloucester last Friday, and suddenly there is a hint of pre-Halloween gloom hanging over England’s preparations.

• Borthwick responds by calling up Charlie Atkinson

• Guy Pepper and Benhard van Rensburg also doubts

England are fretting over the fitness of the fly-half Fin Smith in the lead-up to the Nations Championship home opener against Australia on 8 November. The Northampton player ­damaged a calf in the second half against Leicester on Saturday and will be unable to join the national squad who have a three-day training camp in Bagshot this week.

Losing Smith so close to the ­Wallabies game would be a significant blow given the 24-year-old started at 10 in all three of England’s Tests in July and was instrumental in Saints’ domestic title triumph last season.

• Sale centre returns after ending his two-year spell in France

• Gloucester’s Will Joseph also in Steve Borthwick’s 36-man squad

Joe Marchant has been recalled to England’s training squad for next month’s Nations Championship as Steve Borthwick faces injury disruption to his midfield options.

Marchant receives his first England call-up since the 2023 World Cup after his two-year spell at Stade Français ended with his return to the Gallagher Prem with Sale this season, making him available for selection once again.

Scoring spree will be forgotten at the Rugby World Cup, and a return for Courtney Lawes may hint at coach’s thinking

It says much about Steve Borthwick’s approach to England’s coming autumn campaign that he is due to name his training squad within minutes of the full-time whistle at Harlequins on Sunday. Simply put, there is no time to waste.

Borthwick will have his squad for only a couple of days after the Prem’s derby weekend before they return to their clubs for a domestic fixture. In years gone by there was an extra week with the players but this time, as 12 months ago, Borthwick’s preparations are truncated.

• Captain will resist lure of big-money move to France

• ‘Maro is everything we want at the club – a brilliant leader’

Maro Itoje has reaffirmed his long‑term commitment to England, rejecting interest from France by agreeing a new deal with Saracens.

Itoje’s existing deal, signed in 2024, was due to expire after the World Cup next year but he has agreed terms with his club despite interest from Top 14 sides. A move to either Perpignan or Bordeaux had been mooted but the 31-year-old is to commit his future to the club he first represented in 2013 with a new deal, believed to be until 2029.