Mitchell injury blow adds to England’s woes as Northampton sink Gloucester

England’s injury problems are mounting before Sunday’s autumn opener against Australia with the scrum-half, Alex Mitchell, limping out of Northampton’s hard-fought victory over Gloucester with another suspected hamstring injury.

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, outstanding throughout.

If Pearson’s performance will have pleased Steve Borthwick, Mitchell’s withdrawal will not. He is already waiting on the fitness of the Northampton fly-half Fin Smith, who was in the stands with an injured calf, and now has concerns over his half-back partner.

Mitchell’s injury is all the more of a concern with Archie McParland, his Northampton team-mate and fellow scrum-half, omitted from the matchday squad here.

It would be rough on Mitchell should he miss out with his fourth hamstring injury of the year. 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 Saint is England’s first choice.

Ten of the players on show were included in England’s mini-training camp this week. If Borthwick finds himself without both Northampton scrum-halves, Ben Spencer would appear to be the next cab off the rank with Harry Randall another option. Borthwick also has problems at hooker with Theo Dan going off early in Saracens’ win over Newcastle and fitness concerns over the Bath youngster Kepu Tuipulotu.

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, the visitors beginning in a manner that 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.

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 risky given the scrappy nature of the contest, but it paid off with George Hendy 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 Northampton into third in the table, sitting pretty as the league takes a break until December.