Rugby European Cup semi-finals: London Wasps 30, Northampton 13Life does not get any easier for Brian Ashton. After the weekend's European semi-finals he now has just days to sift through his contact books in an attempt to patch together a squad to tour South Africa.
Less than a week before England meet the Springboks at altitude in Bloemfontein 26 recently selected internationals will still be involved with European competitions - either with the Wasps and Leicester in the Heineken European Cup final at Twickenham on Sunday, May 20th, or with Bath, who meet Clermont Auvergne in the Challenge final a day earlier.
All eight of the pack that took the field in England's last international, against Wales in the Six Nations, play for Wasps and Leicester and may be missing even before Ashton starts checking on the fitness of Jonny Wilkinson and Mike Catt or the availability of Dylan Hartley, the Northampton hooker who is up before a disciplinary panel tomorrow charged with eye gouging in last week's Premiership meeting with Wasps.
So just four months before the start of the World Cup, when sides like the favourites, New Zealand, will be putting the finishing touches to their preparations, Ashton, who has held the England reins only since the start of the year, will still be mixing and matching.
He is due to announce the South African party next Monday and the body of the squad will fly out on May 15th, four days before the Bath final, which will be played on the Saturday night, and five before Twickenham.
As England have already said they want a decent period for their players to become acclimatised to altitude it is possible Ashton will field different XVs at Bloemfontein and then Pretoria the following weekend, while the scope for further trouble is alarming.
Still to come is the final weekend of Guinness Premiership fixtures, where relegation and play-off issues are involved. Bottom-placed Northampton, with Jon Clarke and Ben Cohen involved, play London Irish and Catt, while at the top Gloucester meet Bristol and Leicester have a dress rehearsal - possibly not the only one - for the European final with Wasps.
Gloucester, Bristol, Leicester and then possibly Wasps or Saracens also have to lock horns in two weeks of play-offs to decide the champion club before Wasps and Leicester end the season with their Twickenham date.
"Nightmare? No it's not a nightmare final," said Lawrence Dallaglio, the Wasps captain, after yesterday's defeat of Northampton set up the first all-English final. "Two of the top teams in England are in the Heineken Cup final. That says there is not as much wrong with the English game as we might think.
"When we won the World Cup, everyone said the club structure was the reason why we won it, but when things have been going badly everyone has been criticising the club game whereas I think today and yesterday (Leicester's win over Llanelli) was an advert that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the England club game and that now needs to be transferred to the English national team."
Whether Dallaglio, 34 and so far not part of England's plans in the Ashton era, has any part in the transfer is unlikely. For much of the season his place in the Wasps starting line-up has been in doubt. Yesterday, however, there were flashes of the man who won 77 caps, particularly in the first half.
Along with more likely World Cup candidates such as the backrow colleagues Joe Worsley and Tom Rees, Dallaglio buried himself in the game to the extent of standing toe-to-toe with Northampton's Carlos Spencer, in the eighth minute.
Dallaglio seemed to be gesturing to his eye when he pushed the New Zealand number 10. Spencer appeared to reply with a slap and then another around the side of Dallaglio's head once they had been spoken to by the referee Alan Lewis.
Northampton started brilliantly and soon led 13-0 thanks to a converted try and two penalties, all from Bruce Reihana. But Wasps struck back with a Paul Sackey try before the break and turned the screw in the second half, James Haskell, Sackey and Josh Lewsey all running in tries as they pulled clear.
WASPS:M van Gisbergen; P Sackey, F Waters, D Waldouck, T Voyce; D Cipriani, E Reddan; P Vickery, R Ibanez, P Bracken; S Shaw, T Palmer; J Worsley, T Rees, L Dallaglio. Replacements: N Adams for Bracken (47 mins), J Ward for Ibanez (68 mins), J Lewsey for Cipriani (72 mins), M McMillan for Reddan (79 mins), D Leo for Worsley (78 mins), J Haskell for Dallaglio (58 mins).
NORTHAMPTON:B Reihana; S Lamont, J Clarke, R Kydd, B Cohen; C Spencer, M Robinson; T Smith, M Cortese, J Brooks; Damien Browne, C Short; P Tupai, B Lewitt, Daniel Browne. Replacements: D Gerard for Damien Browne (60 mins), L Labit for Daniel Browne (61 mins), S Tonga'uiha for Smith (73 mins), P Diggin for Clarke (76 mins), J Howard for Robinson (78 mins).
Referee:A Lewis (Ireland).
