England name replacement as van Poortvliet will miss World Cup

England have been forced to alter their official squad of 33 for the upcoming Rugby World Cup, the RFU confirming on Monday that Jack van Poortvliet will undergo surgery and won’t be available for the finals which start versus Argentina in Marseille on September 9.

It was only last Monday at Twickenham when the 22-year-old van Poortvliet was included as one of the three scrum-haves in the squad for France 2023, the Leicester youngster selected along with club colleague Ben Youngs and Harlequins’ Danny Care.

He had spoken enthusiastically that day at English Rugby HQ about how he had got the delightful news the previous day from Steve Borthwick in Cardiff that he had been named in the squad, going on to reveal the delight felt by his family when he told them about his selection when they were driving back from a university trip to Oxford.

However, the youngster’s World Cup campaign lasted less than a week as he limped out of last Saturday’s Summer Nations Series win over Wales after succumbing to a first-half ankle injury.

Head coach Borthwick said in the immediate aftermath: “JP is a positive character. Let’s wait and see what happens, we will get the scan, find out the situation and from there will make a plan.”

That plan has now been confirmed, that van Poortvliet will sadly be unavailable and will be replaced in the squad by Alex Mitchell. The 26-year-old Northampton player featured on four occasions off the Guinness Six Nations bench earlier this year behind van Poortvliet, who started all five of those games.

However, despite inclusion for two weeks of England training in June, Mitchell was ditched by Borthwick when his official RWC training squad was announced at the end of that month.

It meant that van Poortvliet, Youngs and Care spent the following five weeks of training knowing they were likely to be selected in the RWC squad as Borthwick had signposted he would be bringing three players in specialist positions such as scrum-half.

This was what transpired, van Poortvliet, Youngs and Care all getting selected in last Monday’s World Cup squad, but Youngs and Care will now have Mitchell, rather than the first-choice van Poortvliet, for company in France.

A statement read: “Scrum-half Jack van Poortvliet will require surgery on an ankle injury sustained during England’s win against Wales on Saturday at Twickenham Stadium and will not feature in the forthcoming Rugby World Cup in France. Alex Mitchell is called into the England squad as his replacement.”

Borthwick said: “It’s really bad luck for Jack, and we send him our very best wishes for a swift and successful recovery.”

England, who are also awaiting Tuesday’s disciplinary hearing for skipper Owen Farrell following his red card versus Wales, will take on Ireland next Saturday in Dublin and Fiji at Twickenham on August 26 before heading to France before the end of this month.