Test blunder exposed as Sheridan pulls out of South African trip

The Sale tighthead, 35 last Sunday, will be the only prop from the Six Nations squad available for the two devalued Tests against the Springboks once his club colleague, Andrew Sheridan, is ruled out of the trip within the next week.

Scroll down for more

The 27-year-old Lion has revealed that a damaged knee will prevent him from playing in Sale's final match of the season against Harlequins on Saturday.

With his formidable presence required for the World Cup, England dare not take any unnecessary risk with a player who has already been out of action for a month.

It is only a matter of time, therefore, before their list of absentees rises to 34, the majority because of their clubs' success in reaching European finals five days after a shadow England squad depart for Johannesburg.

It exposes the stupidity of the International Board cramming the Test schedule into a World Cup year.

Head coach Brian Ashton had been banking on Sheridan to at least give him the rare luxury of one fully paid-up international prop.

The two other capped looseheads had both bitten the dust - Tim Payne because of serious injury and Perry Freshwater because of Perpignan's bid for the French title.

Leicester, Wasps and Bath marching into European finals meant the removal of the top three tightheads - Phil Vickery, Julian White and Matt Stevens and explained the swift promotion of Turner, whose Test career is limited to six minutes against Wales. Long-term injury has ruled out Pat Barnard of Northampton.

It put England in the absurd position of dredging the Premiership to find some tight forwards. They came up with a cluster of uncapped props and locks as contenders for the 32-man squad to be named next week.

They include Gloucester's promising young loosehead Nick Wood, Kevin Yates, the 34-yearold Saracen who played the last of his two Tests 10 years ago, Micky Ward of Newcastle and another 34-year-old, Darren Crompton of Bristol.

Another Saracen, Matt Cairns, is under consideration as the new hooker in competition with Andy Titterrell and Dylan Hartley, whose availability rests on the outcome of tonight's disciplinary hearing into three allegations of gouging.

England have been shorn of so many locks that of the nine capped since the World Cup only Chris Jones of Sale and Gloucester's Alex Brown are available. The rest - Martin Corry, Tom Palmer, Louis Deacon, Danny Grewcock, Ben Kay, Steve Borthwick and Simon Shaw - are in European finals.

There is a glimmer of hope that the Anglo-French boycott of the Heineken Cup may be averted.

Four hours of talks in Dublin last night between International Board chairman Syd Millar and French League president Serge Blanco ended with both parties agreeing to a diplomatic silence, an improvement on recent slanging matches between them.

In the absence of any peace deal, the Professional Rugby Players' Association are to consider taking strike action at its board meeting next week.

"You can understand why there is great disillusionment with the breakdown of discussions between the clubs and the RFU," said players' union chairman and Bath prop David Barnes.

"We have discussed strike action and this will be a lively meeting." Everything now rests on Millar's meeting with Premiership clubs and the RFU on Saturday. Blanco will have made it clear again yesterday that if the RFU split their shares in the tournament with the clubs, the French will call off their boycott.

Bristol will climb back into the top four of the Premiership if they beat a largely second-string Leicester at Ashton Gate tonight. In that event, Wasps' qualification for the semi-finals will hinge on winning Saturday's European Cup Final rehearsal at Welford Road.

Leicester, needing to win one of their last two matches to ensure a home semi-final, rest all but two of the team who beat Llanelli last Saturday - prop Alex Moreno and wing Tom Varndell.