Scotland opener is week too early for Tuilagi

The Leicester Tigers centre was the driving force behind England’s momentous win over New Zealand in December, but the ankle injury he sustained on club duty nine days ago had been hanging over their preparations for the Calcutta Cup.

Every press briefing Lancaster and his coaching staff held during their week-long stay in Leeds last week was dominated by talk of Tuilagi’s fitness.

Lancaster initially said he would make the decision today, but after reconvening his players at their Pennyhill Park headquarters yesterday, he wisely put an end to the uncertainty by eliminating Tuilagi from his thinking.

Tuilagi could return for England’s second game against Ireland in Dublin on Sunday week, yet even then it appears that the head coach will take that decision early on in the planning process.

Lancaster said: “Manu has run out of time for Scotland and we’ll make a call on him for Ireland early next week.

“By the end of the week we expect Manu to be running fully and changing direction.

“The message I’m receiving from the medical team is that he will be training fully by Tuesday or Wednesday next week, but I’ll need to make a call earlier in the week. He won’t be training properly until at least Friday.

“We want to make sure Manu is right and doesn’t rush back and break down again. It’s one of those injuries that can go again.

“It’s taken until now to get him to run in a straight line. One of Manu’s strengths is changing direction and we want to make sure he can do that without suffering a recurrence.

“Manu is a big loss – he was outstanding against New Zealand. But he missed the first two games of last year’s Six Nations because of a hamstring and it’s an opportunity for someone else.

“It’s disappointing for him, but it’s not a long-term injury so he’ll be back soon.”

Tuilagi was devastating during last autumn’s record 38-21 victory over the All Blacks, scoring one try and creating two more.

The explosive 21-year-old is England’s most dangerous player and, when fit, has been an ever-present in their midfield since making his debut in 2011.

In his absence, England must decide whether to draft in Billy Twelvetrees or Jonathan Joseph to partner Brad Barritt, while fly-halves Toby Flood and Owen Farrell are alternatives.

Twelvetrees would start at inside centre with Barritt switching to outside, while Joseph would be a straight replacement at 13.

Lancaster, who names his squad on Thursday, added: “We have a pretty good idea of how we’ll rejig the midfield. We have our thoughts. It changes the emphasis a little bit, but it won’t fundamentally affect the way we play.

“Brad will be in the equation and we need to make sure we can still break the gainline and have physical defenders. We’ve got to have the ability to get across the gainline and defend.”

Equally as worrying for Lancaster is the news that prop Alex Corbisiero will miss the entire Six Nations with a knee injury.

The initial outlook on Corbisiero’s knee problem was that he could return against France on February 23, but London Irish director of rugby Brian Smith revealed at the weekend that his rehabilitation will take longer.

Lancaster, however, denies Smith’s suggestion that the injury is more grave than has been made public.

“The reality is the surgeons recommended two weeks’ rest and said it would then take six to eight weeks to be back playing, so that will rule him out of the Six Nations,” said Lancaster.

“Hopefully, he’ll be back around the final game against Wales, but the reality is he’ll have to play two or three Premiership games first.

“It’s a shame because everything I heard about the operation was positive, but it’s going to take a while to get right. Everyone’s positive and upbeat about his recovery.”

Gloucester fly-half Freddie Burns has also been ruled out for the games with Scotland and Ireland with knee ligament injury damage, while Wasps No 8 Billy Vunipola is struggling with an ankle problem.

The message from an upbeat camp all throughout their week in Yorkshire was that they have plenty of squad depth and healthy competition in a number of places. These fresh injury blows put that assertion under the microscope.

“Alex is a big loss, but Joe Marler has played well for Harlequins recently,” said Lancaster of his front-row options.

“Mako Vunipola is improving all the time and Nick Wood was outstanding for the Saxons.”

England have been installed as second favourites behind France, which is in stark contrast to how they entered the tournament last year following their shambolic World Cup campaign.

“We’ve had a lot of experience over the last 12 months and we must make that count on game day,” said Lancaster.

“We’ve made England a place where people want to be, which is a great start. But no player will feel comfortable about his place in the team, which is also where you want to be.”