Bath fly-half Orlando Bailey has been ruled out of England A’s encounter with Ireland A at Ashton Gate on Sunday.
With England versus New Zealand on the November 2 horizon and Steve Borthwick poised to name his Test squad on Wednesday for the four-game Autum Nations Series, a number of leading candidates have been pencilled in for some timely club action.
Ollie Sleightholme, last season’s leading try scorer in the Gallagher Premiership, got off the mark for the season by scoring twice in Northampton’s comeback 33-29 victory over Harlequins.
There are just four weeks to go before the All Blacks arrive at Allianz Stadium on November 2, so players will be vying to impress.
The Gallagher Premiership table after round one highlighted how you can get strange quirks in this game, defending champions Northampton finding themselves at the bottom 16 weeks after they lifted the trophy at Twickenham.
All 10 clubs have named their teams and numerous selections catch the eye. For instance, Beno Obano, whose red card was influential in tilting last June’s Twickenham showpiece result in favour of Northampton, has completed his suspension and is a Bath starter at The Rec.
The Belfast-based province have endured a rollercoaster season and shoud reach the play-offs if they can topple mighty Leinster
We have assembled U23 squads for all 14 of the Guinness PRO14 sides to see which of the teams has the brightest future moving forward.