England will be without eight players who have started internationals this season when they take on New Zealand in the first Test at Auckland's Eden Park next month, because their clubs have reached the Premiership final.
Players from Northampton and Saracens will not be considered for the first of the three meetings with the All Blacks, as they will arrive in the country only 60 hours before the series starts. They will include the Vunipola brothers, Owen Farrell, Brad Barritt, Chris Ashton and Alex Goode from Saracens, who defeated Harlequins to make the play-off final.
A further problem for the England head coach, Stuart Lancaster, was the leg injury suffered by the full-back Mike Brown, the Premiership's player of the season, 12 minutes from the end at Allianz Park. He was being assessed on Saturday night, having suffered a suspected strained hamstring. With Dan Cole, Tom Croft and Alex Corbisiero already ruled out of the tour, England could be without virtually a whole team of players on 7 June.
Northampton's win against Leicester on Friday deprived Lancaster of four of his regular starters in the Six Nations: Luther Burrell, Dylan Hartley, Courtney Lawes and Tom Wood. Alex Waller and Sam Dickinson are among the uncapped players being considered for the tour and Stephen Myler is one of the candidates to understudy Owen Farrell at fly-half.
Lancaster has long accepted that though the timing of the first Test is an administrative failure, coming seven days after the end of the season in Europe, in contravention of the spirit of the International Rugby Board's policy that the first Saturday in June should be a rest period for Test players, it is also an opportunity, as he will have to make numerous changes from the side that took the field in Rome last March at the end of the Six Nations.
England's probable team in the first Test is Brown at full-back (if fit), Marland Yarde and Jonny May on the wings, Manu Tuilagi and Kyle Eastmond in midfield, George Ford and Danny Care at half-back, with Joe Marler, Dave Ward and David Wilson making up the front row, Joe Launchbury and Dave Attwood behind them and Chris Robshaw forming the back row with Ben Morgan and Tom Johnson.
The positions of inside-centre, where Billy Twelvetrees will be missing through injury, hooker and blindside flanker will particularly test Lancaster's resources; Ford, after his first full year of senior rugby following his move from Leicester to Bath, is in line to make a first Test start after coming off the bench for his debut in Rome.
"It is about giving players like George belief," said Lancaster, after being asked whether Ford would be overwhelmed by being tasked with controlling the game against the best side in the world. "You need to give him belief in the gameplan and make sure he has done the work, and the team have done the work around him. That is what gives the players confidence.
"You cannot replicate what it is going to be like facing the haka in Eden Park, but I can give him as much confidence that he is ready to play a game at that level by the work we have done on and off the field. It is absolutely critical that the players believe they can beat the All Blacks. The rest of it is then up to the player to deal with the game as it unfolds. And this is where Ian McGeechan talks about 'Test-match animals'. You will find out who can and who can't."
"We have let ourselves down on the last two visits to New Zealand. We need to make sure we leave there as good ambassadors for England and with their country respecting us as a team and a group. Whatever side we put out and compare it to theirs in terms of experience and caps, continuity and consistency of selection, we will be seen as the underdogs. That is probably not a bad place to start."
