It doesn’t quite match what some might consider a Springbok mini-crisis when it comes to scrumhalves, but England will also have a halfback racing time to be ready for the 4 July opening Nations Cup clash in Johannesburg.
Whereas Bok coach Rassie Erasmus has several No 9s out of action at this point and will be watching this weekend’s round of Vodacom URC quarterfinals with bated breath that no one else joins Cobus Reinach, Grant Williams, Jaden Hendrikse and Morne van den Bergh on the sidelines, England coach Steve Borthwick’s headache is focused on just one player.
That player is quite significant, though, with Alex Mitchell having been in every matchday squad for the British and Irish Lions on their tour of Australia last year, and is considered a big part of the England game when it works. Mitchell, 29, injured a hamstring in an England training session last week and is unlikely to play again for his club, Northampton Saints, in the Gallagher Premiership.
There’s been no clarification yet in the UK media that he will miss the Ellis Park showdown, but he’s been listed as doubtful for the July phase of the inaugural Nations Cup, which also incorporates England matches against Fiji and Argentina. The opening game against the Boks is now just five weeks away.
England got used to playing without Mitchell in the second half of the recent Guinness Six Nations as he was injured, that time the hamstring on his other leg, in the 25th minute of the 42-21 defeat to Ireland in London. He missed the subsequent games against Italy and France, both of them games which England lost.
Let the preparations begin 👊
— England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) May 18, 2026
Head coach Steve Borthwick has named his squad for a three-day alignment camp ahead of the upcoming Nations Championship.@O2 | #WearTheRose
Mitchell took some time to get over that hamstring injury, as after the Six Nations, he missed several Northampton games, with his return being the week after Easter in the Investec Champions Cup thriller that the Saints lost by two points to Bath.
With the injury being sustained in England training, it has fed a potential small controversy in rugby circles over there, with Northampton’s director of rugby Phil Dowson being polite in his reaction to losing Mitchell, but at the same time appearing to ask a pointed question.
“It is frustrating, and I think every director of rugby would say that and Steve (Borthwick) would say that,” said Dowson to the UK media.
“He’d say that when they get injured on club time, going into internationals. It’s the nature of the beast. These things happen. My question would be what can we learn from it and how can we mitigate against the risks of it happening again?”
INJURIES COULD BRING FAF AND IVAN INTO EQUATION
Bothwick’s opposite number in the first test match of the July window, Erasmus, has the opposite problem, the one Dowson referred to first up, meaning players getting injured while on club time heading into the international season.
Both first-choice Bok scrumhalves from last year, Reinach and Williams, have been injured while on duty for the DHL Stormers and Hollywoodbets Sharks, respectively. It is not clear at this point whether either of them will be ready to play in July, and then there is Hendrikse, who was badly concussed playing for the Sharks against Edinburgh and has been stood back from playing since then.
Van den Bergh, who played ahead of Hendrikse for the Boks last year, returned home from Ireland last week to undergo an operation on an injured bicep and will be out for four to six months. It is an untimely injury for the Fidelity SecureDrive Lions scrum-half because he could reasonably have expected the coming international season to be his window of opportunity to establish himself as a more regular member of the matchday squad, given that other players might be absent.
If Reinach and Williams remain unavailable once the international season starts, with the kick-off to the 2026 Bok campaign being the 20 June clash with the Barbarians in Gqeberha, it could propel veteran Faf de Klerk, who reportedly has been in excellent form in Japan, into reprising the role he played in two World Cup-winning efforts for the Boks.
Vodacom Bulls halfback Embrose Papier is back in the Bok mix because he was included in the latest alignment camp. Papier, though, hasn’t played for the Boks since Erasmus’ first year in charge, 2018, and the same for another player who should get a look in given his all-round skills, Ivan van Zyl.
The latter is currently playing for Saracens in the Premiership but is set to link up with the Sharks from 1 July and would be a good addition to the Bok squad.