England ponder replacement for Narraway

England are considering whether to replace Luke Narraway in their Six Nations training squad after the Gloucester captain suffered a calf strain in training ahead of Saturday’s Calcutta Cup clash with Scotland at Murrayfield.

Narraway, who had been drafted in as injury cover for Tom Wood in the back row, suffered the injury towards the end of England’s open training session in Leeds on Friday.

England’s interim head coach Stuart Lancaster decided to delay any decision until after the Saxons’ game against the Ireland Wolfhounds in Exeter last night.

The Saxons, who play Scotland A at Netherdale in Galashiels on Friday evening, won 23-17 and Thomas Waldrom, the leading contender to replace Narraway, capped a storming individual performance with England’s second try. Ben Spencer scored the other and Gloucester stand-off Freddie Burns converted both and landed three penalties.

Ireland outscored the Saxons by three tries to two, creating touchdowns for Dave Kearney, Tomas O’Leary and Simon Zebo, but they could not compete with England’s dominance up front.

The England squad reconvene tonight to begin the build-up to the Murrayfield game. Ben Morgan is the only specialist number eight in the group, although Chris Robshaw, Phil Dowson and Calum Clark are all versatile back row operators.

Lancaster will name his captain tomorrow and then cut his squad down from 32 on Tuesday night, with the starting line-up and bench to be announced on Thursday.