Jamie George suffers damage scare to compound depressing week for former England captain

Jamie George limped off with a hamstring drawback late in Saracens’ 32-24 Investec Champions Cup defeat by Castres to compound a depressing week for the England hooker.

Changed as England captain by membership team-mate Maro Itoje when Steve Borthwick named his Guinness Six Nations squad on Tuesday, he then suffered an damage at StoneX Stadium that might place his involvement in opposition to Eire on February 1 doubtful.

George got here on for two-try entrance row Theo Dan within the fifty fifth minute however was compelled off within the closing levels with Saracens unable to point the extent of the harm.

“Jamie has harm his hamstring. We’re not fairly positive how critical that hamstring is in the intervening time,” director of rugby Mark McCall stated.

George’s late withdrawal and a critical knee damage sustained by Toby Knight added to a irritating afternoon in north London, the place Castres lastly gained after 21 successive away defeats within the Champions Cup.

Each groups had already certified for the spherical of 16 and have been battling for house benefit – a reward that goes to the High 14’s eighth-placed membership after they confirmed higher struggle and aptitude to shut out a deserved win.

They usually achieved the upset regardless of naming completely new beginning XV following their 49-10 demolition of the Bulls final weekend and in defiance of their repute as flaky travellers.

“It was a very poor efficiency by us. Castres completely deserved to win the sport and we obtained what we deserved as nicely, which is a tough factor to say,” McCall stated.

“Our mentality for some motive wasn’t fairly proper and that’s on me and the coaches. It was a very disappointing day. Castres positively outenthused us. They have been actually up for the sport.

“We had loads of the ball however we have been poor with it they usually defended in opposition to us comfortably. Then they struck when the alternatives arose for them. It was such a disappointing day.

“All 15 of the gamers they introduced in had performed within the final 5 weeks, simply not collectively.

“It wasn’t a pack of children, they have been correct rugby gamers and we did attempt to talk that to the staff. We simply weren’t fairly there mentally.”

Castres end second in Pool Three – Saracens should accept fourth – and their forwards coach Karena Whiongi acclaimed a particular win.

“There’s an awesome ambiance within the altering room. The boys put in an superior efficiency,” he stated.

“This was about character. We obtained up arduous on the road and it turned out nicely for us. We compelled quite a lot of dealing with errors. We obtained the ball again, obtained it our huge and stored up the stress on them. That’s what the gameplan was. Nice!

“It will give us nice confidence. To win right here is one out of one million. Let’s see how the remainder of the championship goes.”