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Latest Northampton update on 'up in the air' Alex Mitchell absence

Northampton scrum-half Alex Mitchell (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

The wait-and-see game at Northampton over the neck injury that has sidelined Alex Mitchell is continuing as the Saints claim there is yet no definite timeline as to when he might play again.

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Steve Borthwick’s first-choice England scrum-half was originally set to play against Bedford in Northampton’s final pre-season outing on September 13. He had been named in the starting team but was a no-show come kick-off and has since missed Northampton’s opening two Premiership matches.

He will again be marked absent when Harlequins visit cinch Stadium @ Franklin’s Gardens this Friday night in round three. Saints director of rugby Phil Dowson was vague after last Saturday’s win over Exeter about the Mitchell prognosis, saying: “He saw the specialist on Thursday and so we are hoping to get a bit more clarity on that in the next week or so.”

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    Dowson was a bit more forthcoming with information at his midweek media briefing but still in the dark as regards a comeback date. He explained: “He has had scans, he has had some treatment and we are just waiting to see if that treatment is sufficient to get him going again.

    “It’s wait and see at the moment. There is genuinely no timeline because it could be anything at the moment. It’s up in the air so it’s hard to make a short-term plan or a long-term plan when you don’t have that information.

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    “But he is feeling a bit better on the back of some time off. I think he’s probably bored more than anything else, but he is also a bit frustrated because there is no timeline to work to.

    “He came in one morning and he had a very sore neck. We obviously had the specialist look at it, and what you don’t want to do is mess around with it.”

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    J
    JW 3 hours ago
    Why Les Kiss and Stuart Lancaster can lead Australia to glory

    It is now 22 years since Michael Lewis published his groundbreaking treatise on winning against the odds

    I’ve never bothered looking at it, though I have seen a move with Clint as a scout/producer. I’ve always just figured it was basic stuff for the age of statistics, is that right?

    Following the Moneyball credo, the tailor has to cut his cloth to the material available

    This is actually a great example of what I’m thinking of. This concept has abosolutely nothing to do with Moneyball, it is simple being able to realise how skillsets tie together and which ones are really revelant.


    It sounds to me now like “moneyball” was just a necessity, it was like scienctest needing to come up with some random experiment to make all the other world scholars believe that Earth was round. The American sporting scene is very unique, I can totally imagine one of it’s problems is rich old owners not wanting to move with the times and understand how the game has changed. Some sort of mesiah was needed to convert the faithful.


    While I’m at this point in the article I have to say, now the NRL is a sport were one would stand up and pay attention to the moneyball phenom. Like baseball, it’s a sport of hundreds of identical repetitions, and very easy to data point out.

    the tailor has to cut his cloth to the material available and look to get ahead of an unfair game in the areas it has always been strong: predictive intelligence and rugby ‘smarts’

    Actually while I’m still here, Opta Expected Points analysis is the one new tool I have found interesting in the age of data. Seen how the random plays out as either likely, or unlikely, in the data’s (and algorithms) has actually married very closely to how I saw a lot of contests pan out.


    Engaging return article Nick. I wonder, how much of money ball is about strategy as apposed to picks, those young fella’s got ahead originally because they were picking players that played their way right? Often all you here about is in regards to players, quick phase ruck ball, one out or straight up, would be were I’d imagine the best gains are going to be for a data driven leap using an AI model of how to structure your phases. Then moving to tactically for each opposition.

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