England’s Calcutta Cup preparations have been tainted by the fallout from the handling of Immanuel Feyi-Waboso’s shoulder injury, which raises questions over the Rugby Football Union’s new central contracting system.
Feyi-Waboso reinjured his shoulder at England’s training base on Wednesday after suffering a dislocation on Exeter duty on 21 December with the Chiefs confirming he will be sidelined for up to 14 weeks. He is unlikely to play again this season and, as he will be out of action when Andy Farrell names his British & Irish Lions squad, Feyi-Waboso’s chances of touring Australia are hanging by a thread.
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The 22-year-old has been at the centre of a saga over the past two months and Exeter made their feelings clear on Thursday with a terse statement that revealed the wing aggravated his shoulder in a rehab session with England during the first rest week of the Six Nations. Steve Borthwick had hoped that Feyi-Waboso might be available for the back end of England’s campaign but he is now set to be out until late May.
The England assistant coach Richard Wigglesworth said: “We needed to make sure he was going to be right so he got tested properly here, significantly tested. It wasn’t right so then the surgery option then came. As an attack coach, I would be lying [if I didn’t think] ‘It would be nice if Manny was …’ but it wasn’t like that. There were all these hurdles that he was going to have to get over and failed at one, a fair bit away from returning to play. Part of being a professional rugby player is that you have to deal with these things. Knowing Manny as we do, he’ll be diligent, he’ll get back, and we’ll look forward to when he is.”
The Professional Game Partnership – signed last summer and worth £33m a year to the clubs – is a step towards central contracts and gives Borthwick a greater degree of control over the 17 players, including Feyi-Waboso, on enhanced deals. Crucially, they also give him “final say” over all sports science matters including operations.
The Feyi-Waboso saga is a messy one in what can be considered the first major test of the PGP. Soon after Feyi-Waboso suffered the injury, Exeter were keen for him to undergo surgery and the club booked him for an operation. It was believed that was the player’s preferred option. It then transpired he would have a second scan which raised two possibilities: to undergo surgery or to attempt to rehab his shoulder without the operation and potentially returning for the back end of the Six Nations.
When naming his squad for the Six Nations on 14 January, Borthwick said unequivocally that Feyi-Waboso would be having surgery but that did not prove to be the case due to a delay in the process. Amid that delay, the Exeter wing went down the rehab route with Borthwick adamant it was the “player’s decision”. When called into camp last week, England put him through a series of tests; Feyi-Waboso reinjured his shoulder and finally went under the knife on Wednesday.
It raises questions as to why two months elapsed between Feyi-Waboso sustaining the injury and undergoing surgery and why there has been such confusion. The PGP was supposed to give Borthwick greater control, and with it clarity, but having three parties involved has drawn out the process. “I think it certainly would have happened quicker, without doubt,” Exeter’s director of rugby Rob Baxter said in January. “We had things booked, ready to go, decisions ready to be made a week ago, and then the process you have to go through now has certainly slowed things down.”
Meanwhile, George Martin has been ruled out of Saturday’s clash with Scotland after taking a bang to his knee in training with Ted Hill taking his place on the bench. Martin has started England’s last 11 matches but, having been unable to train last week, he was dropped to the bench with Leicester clubmate Ollie Chessum replacing him in the starting XV. After a setback in training, however, Martin drops out of the 23 with Hill in line to win his third cap and first in four years.
The 25-year-old is a flanker by trade but fills in at lock for Bath sporadically and England’s captain and second-row Maro Itoje is in no doubt as to Hill’s qualities. “He is a player I have admired for a number of years, seeing him do his thing at Worcester and then at Bath,” Itoje said. “In his last stint with England I also played with him there. He is a supreme athlete. He looks like Clark Kent and Superman with his glasses. He is a man carved out of Greek stone. I am very happy that I hopefully get an opportunity to play with him.”
