Between them, Bath and Sale will be missing the nine England internationals selected by Steve Borthwick for the Autumn Nations Series when they meet at The Rec this Saturday in a repeat of last year’s Gallagher Premiership semi-final.
Bath’s Will Stuart, Charlie Ewels, Sam Underhill, Ben Spencer and Ollie Lawrence have been accompanied by Sale’s Curry twins, Luke Cowan-Dickie and Tom Roebuck in preparing for England’s clash against the All Blacks at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham on November 2nd.
But with Johann van Graan confirming Finn Russell’s availability along with the rest of their other non-England internationals, potentially minus Russell’s Scotland team-mate Cam Redpath, Bath will still have plenty of big guns on show, as will Sale.
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With George Ford ‘an outside chance’ to make a comeback for the visitors having nursed his way back from the quad muscle injury he suffered against Saracens in round two, two of the world’s leading 10s could go head-to-head in a marquee duel as the Premiership prepares for one last thrilling round of action before going into the November recess. That said, Sharks boss Al Sanderson didn’t sound overly optimistic when asked about Ford in his Tuesday media briefing.
A heap of South Africans will be involved, too, including – if selected – Bath’s try-scoring prop Thomas du Toit, who was recently named in the Springboks’ European tour party.
“They’ll all be available for the weekend. We’ll take our time, it is only Tuesday afternoon, so we have still got Thursday training and one or two guys still to train in the week and we will make our decisions come Friday morning. But yah, after the five England internationals everybody is still here at the club. They have been with us all the whole week,” van Graan confirmed when asked about his international contingent.
“I have publicly said many times that the more Test players Bath can deliver the better for the team in the long-term. Whether it is England, England A, South Africa, Wales, Scotland, it is great that guys can play international rugby and it shows that we as a club are doing something right, and we are proud of those boys.”
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Gallagher Premiership
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Redpath had to pull out of Bath’s 26-24 win away to Harlequins last weekend at the eleventh hour and will be assessed, along with full-back Tom de Glanville, who was seen limping after the game.
But No.8 Alfie Barbeary is definitely ruled out after suffering a whiplash injury, which comes with a mandatory 12-day stand-down period.
“There is a bit of doubt there with Cam,” van Graan said. “He will go for a scan and once we have got a bit more info we will know the situation. He felt some leg stiffness before the game and we pulled him out as a precaution and we are going to investigate it a bit further.
“Tom de Glanville has gone for a check-up, we will see how he is at the back of the week.”
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