{"id":608016,"date":"2026-05-28T06:49:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T06:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/608016\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T06:49:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T06:49:17","slug":"alex-mitchell-out-ranking-7-england-scrum-half-options","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/608016\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Mitchell OUT? Ranking 7 England scrum-half options"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Barbarians<\/a><\/p>\n

Northampton Saints scrum-half Alex Mitchell has emerged as a major doubt for England\u2019s Nations Championship Tests in July, in yet another blow for Steve Borthwick.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mitchell, who featured in every match-day squad in last year\u2019s British and Irish Lions tour, suffered a hamstring injury in England\u2019s recent three-day alignment camp at Pennyhill Park, which comes after he also missed the latter stages of the Six Nations with another hamstring issue. This fresh injury is on the other leg, though.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s pulled it, and he\u2019s done a decent job on it,\u201d Saints director of rugby Phil Dowson said of the scrum-half\u2019s injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a push to get him any rugby for us this season, but I don\u2019t know about England\u2019s timelines.\u201d<\/p>\n

While he did admit he was not aware of any England timelines, Dowson\u2019s admission that Mitchell will miss the rest of the domestic season will surely worry Borthwick looking towards their Tests against the Springboks, Fiji and Argentina.<\/p>\n

But, what options does the England<\/a> boss have at his disposal now? Well, here\u2019s a rundown of the leading options at scrum-half.<\/p>\n

Northampton Saints boss set for England talks after Alex Mitchell injury: \u2018We can do better\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Test starter: Jack van Poortvliet<\/p>\n

The absence of Mitchell and the ongoing chatter around Ben Spencer (which we\u2019ll come onto later) could see Jack van Poortvliet return to the starting scrum-half role. He\u2019s had a pretty bumpy ride at Test level following the horror injury which ruled him out of the 2023 World Cup, but he has been in red-hot form for Leicester Tigers this year and could be set for a big July with England as a result.<\/p>\n

He is just doing all the nuts and bolts superbly well for Leicester. His distribution is bang on, his control of the attacking speed keeps Leicester in total control and crucially, he backs that up with some good kicking and the occasional snipe too.<\/p>\n

This feels like a big summer for him looking towards the 2027 World Cup.<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as\u00a0a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a>\u00a0for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

In the mix: Archie McParland, Charlie Bracken<\/p>\n

Borthwick is starting to thicken out the depth chart at scrum-half, as proved by his selection of five number nines for last week\u2019s camp, and the young duo Archie McParland and Charlie Bracken will rightly be in the mix this summer.<\/p>\n

Both men seem to be playing with real confidence right now, which is such a crucial thing for young players and will certainly bring bundles of energy as a result. Crucially, too, they both love to play attacking rugby, be it with injections of tempo around the ruck or in the carry, and that is exactly what Borthwick<\/a> will want from them.<\/p>\n

This also feels like a really good time to bring them both fully into the group, fast-track their development and give them a real flavour of Test match rugby, with the pair very much the future of the number nine jersey.<\/p>\n

Outside bet: Harry Randall, Raffi Quirke<\/p>\n

They have both been dipped in and out of the Test squad in recent times, and could be set to do that once again this July. They potentially sit just below the aforementioned group at the time of writing, with both men missing out on the recent alignment camp, and potentially face a big fight to get back in the mix.<\/p>\n

England hopeful nearing return in welcome boost for Steve Borthwick<\/a><\/p>\n

Injuries have not helped their cases, though, but with\u00a0both players enjoying quick, attacking rugby where they can create broken field, they would do a good job if called back into the squad.<\/p>\n

Bolter: Lucas Friday<\/p>\n

Another youngster bang in form this season is Lucas Friday, who could be nudging his way into the pecking order too.<\/p>\n

It would be a big call to bring him straight into the mix, but like McParland and Bracken, he is really playing with confidence and a skip in his step, which is exactly when you should start looking at youngsters. Like the others, he also likes to inject pace into the attack, and he also reads the game exceptionally well.<\/p>\n

Again, it\u2019s a big shout, but he deserves to be in the conversation.<\/p>\n

Curious case: Ben Spencer<\/p>\n

He shouldn\u2019t automatically be ruled out of the summer tour, but his ongoing shoulder injury could cause some concern looking towards the Nations Championship. The scrum-half has been dipped in and out for Bath in recent weeks, making just six appearances for the reigning champions since returning from the Six Nations, and was also sent home early from the alignment camp as well.<\/p>\n

Should he be fully fit for the summer tour, he will likely come straight in as England\u2019s starting nine, but for now, he is a slight worry. Watch this space.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: England\u2019s worrying injury list ahead of Nations Championship as Steve Borthwick sweats over key men<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Northampton Saints scrum-half Alex Mitchell has emerged as a major doubt for England\u2019s Nations Championship Tests in July,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[309,242,348,3482,50,79323,21002,5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-608016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-england","tag-features","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-news","tag-northampton-saints","tag-premiership","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}