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A key beneficiary from injury is Tom Youngs who will leap from the Saxons squad into the senior squad to replace the injured Rob Webber and join Dylan Hartley.
As there are only two hookers in the squad this means that Youngs is guaranteed to be on the bench for the Fiji Test and, indeed, all others fitness permitting. It also means that he is likely to be in the same England 22 as his younger brother, Ben, who is fighting over the first choice scrum half’s jersey with Danny Care.
For Youngs, a former centre, this also represents a sensational rise in fortunes after he was told by the former Leicester coach turned South African head coach, Heyneke Meyer, to try his hand as a hooker three years’ ago.
The first indication that this switch would prove successful was when he impressed on tour in South Africa last June with the midweek team. This season he has ousted former England hooker George Chuter from the Tigers’s starting XV and having continued to make an impact the 25-year-old suddenly finds himself as England’s second choice hooker.
His biggest unfulfilled ambition is to run out at Twickenham alongside brother Ben in an England jersey, having started for Leicester with Ben for the first time at Sale a fortnight ago.
