Johnson takes French leave

Injury lists forces England manager to break his rule and watch players in Paris

(Getty)

despite his previous reluctance to travel to see England players in France, Martin Johnson and two of his colleagues in the England coaching set-up, John Wells and Graham Rowntree, will attend this evening's Top 14 match between Stade Français and Brive in Paris.

There they will watch James Haskell and Jamie Noon, among others, putting their exiled wares on display. The way things are going, another half-dozen Test contenders could be off-limits for the autumn internationals by the time the old Leicester triumvirate re-cross the Channel.

Riki Flutey and Delon Armitage, two first-choice backs, are already out of England's meetings with Australia, Argentina and New Zealand next month at Twickenham. So too is the uncapped Harlequins inside centre Jordan Turner-Hall, who might well have come into Johnson's thinking, and with the experienced Olly Barkley of Bath suffering all manner of complications in his recovery from a fractured fibula and Sam Vesty of Leicester yet to play this season, the midfield options are few and far between.

Yesterday, the fitness focus – or rather, the lack-of-fitness focus – switched to the back row of the scrum. Tom Rees, the outstanding open-side flanker from Wasps and a good bet to lead England at some point in the none-too-distant future, has been struggling with shoulder trouble and was described by a club spokesman as having reached a "plateau in his rehabilitation". In other words, his treatment is going nowhere fast. Rees, out of circulation since the spring, will consult a specialist for an umpteenth opinion next week.

In what now appears to be Rees' inevitable absence in November, the selectors will have three choices. They could restore Lewis Moody of Leicester to the Test team – he is currently in the second-string Saxons squad – or stick with Joe Worsley, who rarely plays the open-side role at Wasps but gave it his all during last season's Six Nations Championship and caught the eye with some highly effective defensive performances. Alternatively, they could turn to Steffon Armitage of London Irish, who just happens to be one of the form English players in the Premiership.

Armitage, brother of the stricken Delon, plays for the Exiles at Sale tonight, in a pack showing three changes from that which gave Wasps the run-around five days ago. The two clubs are enjoying very different fortunes, with Irish playing the best rugby in the country and Sale seeking a first win since the opening day of the campaign. "This is like a cup final for us," said the northerners' director of rugby Kingsley Jones, who has pushed Nick Macleod into service at outside-half because of injuries to Charlie Hodgson and Lee Thomas.

Meanwhile, the Rugby Football Union has cited three players – the Gloucester forwards Olivier Azam and Adam Eustace' the Bath back Joe Maddock – for alleged offences during last weekend's round of Premiership matches. Azam is accused of kicking the England captain Steve Borthwick in the face, Eustace of stamping in the same game at Saracens and Maddock of hitting the Leicester lock Geoff Parling with a dangerous tackle.