Mitchell limps off as Northampton beat Gloucester, raising England selection doubts ahead of Australia test
Alex Mitchell limped off during Northampton’s hard-fought Premiership victory over Gloucester, leaving the scrum-half a major doubt for England before next Sunday’s autumn opener against Australia. Northampton responded to an early Gloucester onslaught by scoring 28 unanswered points to secure the win.
Northampton’s victory was built on defensive resilience, with Tom Pearson singled out for an outstanding performance as Saints withheld the early pressure from the league leaders. Fin Smith, Northampton’s fly-half, watched from the stands with a calf injury, while Archie McParland was omitted from the matchday squad after suffering a calf problem at England’s training camp. “Fin and Archie are both calf, Fin probably not as bad as Archie but it remains to be seen,” said Northampton’s director of rugby, Phil Dowson. “Mitchell has hurt his hamstring but I don’t know how bad. We have to be super careful with Alex and he knows his own body.” Mitchell’s withdrawal would be a fourth hamstring injury of the year, following problems during the Six Nations, at an England camp in May, in the Premiership final against Exeter and during the summer Test against Fiji.
Mitchell left midway through the first half after being caught by a Gloucester chaser while covering back to collect a loose ball. Gloucester struck first after eight minutes when Seb Atkinson put George Barton through a gap and Barton offloaded to Max Llewellyn to score, before Will Joseph finished under the posts following another clever pass from Atkinson. The captain, Seb Atkinson, who signed a new contract until 2029 this week, impressed throughout and had only just recovered from a knee problem.
Northampton worked their way back to level at the interval through driving-maul tries from Pearson and Curtis Langdon. In the second half Saints declined a straightforward penalty to kick to the corner and George Hendy eventually went over on the left, with Rory Hutchinson’s late score securing the bonus point. Northampton’s tries were Pearson, Langdon, Hendy and Hutchinson, with Louis-Benoît Belleau converting four; Gloucester’s scores came from Llewellyn and Joseph, with Barton adding two conversions. The victory moved Northampton into third in the table as the league now takes a break until December.
England head coach Steve Borthwick faces mounting selection headaches with uncertainty at half-back and elsewhere in the squad. If Northampton’s two scrum-halves were unavailable, Ben Spencer would be one option with Harry Randall another. Borthwick also has concerns at hooker after Theo Dan went off early in Saracens’ win over Newcastle, and there are fitness questions over Bath youngster Kepu Tuipulotu; Guy Pepper and Benhard Janse van Rensburg have already been ruled out of England’s autumn campaign.
Saracens overturned a 17-7 half-time deficit to beat Newcastle 39-31, scoring five second-half tries, with Noah Caluori coming on after the break to score. “It’s probably best to forget about that first half because it wasn’t a pretty watch and was unexpected … Fortunately, the guys improved a lot with their execution after the break and we created several fine tries,” said Sarries head coach Joe Shaw. Bath returned to winning ways with a 36-28 bonus-point victory over Sale as Joe Cokanasiga scored twice and Finn Russell converted four and added a penalty; director of rugby Johann van Graan said: “Last week we didn’t take our opportunities, but we were much more clinical today. We had a good balance to our game, with Finn expertly using the space out wide against a big physical side. We were really positive throughout and closed the game out well.” Harlequins edged Exeter 31-28 after leading 14-0 inside 11 minutes and then allowing Exeter back to 14-14 at the interval; Quins head coach Jason Gilmore said: “We went eight or nine penalties on the bounce against us, which was poor, and a yellow card, and we gave Exeter good field position … I said to the boys at half-time: 'If we can stop giving penalties away and get our hands back on the ball, we will be all right,' and I don’t think we gave away a penalty again until the last minute of the game.”
Mitchell’s fitness will be assessed ahead of England’s autumn series opener against Australia next Sunday, leaving Borthwick to weigh his options at scrum-half and across the squad before the Test.