England's injury headaches are mounting before next Sunday's autumn opener against Australia with the scrum-half Alex Mitchell a major doubt after limping out of Northampton's hard-fought victory over Gloucester with another hamstring problem.
It is to the credit of Northampton that they weathered that setback, withheld Gloucester's early onslaught to score 28 unanswered points and see off the early-season pace-setters. Northampton's last league outing here ended with 119 points scored but this was a victory founded on their defensive resilience with Tom Pearson, back in the England picture this autumn, outstanding throughout.
If Pearson's performance will have pleased Borthwick, Mitchell's withdrawal will not. He is already sweating on the fitness of the Northampton fly-half Fin Smith, who sat in the stands with an injured calf here, and now has concerns over his half-back partner Mitchell. England begin a crucial autumn series against the Wallabies and Borthwick now has significant concerns in two key positions. Mitchell's injury is all the more of a worry with Archie McParland, his Northampton team-mate and fellow scrum-half, omitted from the matchday squad against Gloucester due to a calf injury sustained earlier in the week at England's training camp.
It would be rough on Mitchell should he miss out considering it is a fourth hamstring injury of the year and his body language when leaving the field does not bode well. He suffered similar injuries during the Six Nations, at an England camp in May – recovering to take his place in the Northampton squad for the Prem final win over Exeter – and during the summer Test against Fiji. Jack van Poortvliet was England's starting scrum-half for the summer given Mitchell's lack of game time but when fit and firing the Northampton Saint is England's first-choice No 9.
"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."
This was always likely to be an anxious watch for Borthwick given 10 of the players on show were included in England's mini-training camp earlier in the week. If he finds himself without both Northampton scrum-halves for the Wallabies Test, Ben Spencer would come into the frame with Harry Randall another option. Borthwick also has problems at hooker with Theo Dan going off early in Saracens' win over Newcastle amid fitness concerns over Bath youngster Kepu Tuipulotu. Guy Pepper and Benhard van Rensburg have already been ruled out of England's autumn campaign.
Mitchell's withdrawal here came midway through the first half after he was caught by a Gloucester chaser when covering back to gather a loose ball. Northampton were under the pump by this stage – George Skivington's side beginning in a manner which befitted their lofty league position.
They struck first with a well-worked move after eight minutes. Gloucester's driving maul has been a lethal weapon this season but while Northampton withstood the drive, they had no answer to the visitors' quick hands. The captain Seb Atkinson, who this week signed a new contract until 2029, put the excellent George Barton through a gap and he offloaded to Max Llewellyn to score. Will Joseph was next over, showing his acceleration to dash under the posts after a clever pass out the back by Atkinson, who impressed throughout. The form of those two is at least solace for Borthwick, all the more so because Atkinson has just recovered from a knee problem.
Northampton had not really got going but managed to find parity at the half-time interval. Both tries came from driving mauls, finished by Pearson and Curtis Langdon. Not exactly the type of scores for which Saints are associated but evidently their canny group of coaches had done their homework.
Midway through the second half Northampton turned down a straightforward penalty at goal to kick to the corner. It felt a risk given the scrappy nature of this contest but it ultimately paid off with George Hendy eventually splashing over on the left. With a spring in their step, Saints chalked up the bonus-point score after some nifty footwork from the replacement Rory Hutchinson to move into third in the table, sitting pretty as the league now takes a break until December.