Simmonds unlikely to tour with England

By Mark Stevens
17/5/22

Exeter Chiefs Director of Rugby Rob Baxter says it's 'unlikely' Sam Simmonds will be part of England's plans for their summer tour to Australia.

Baxter confirmed the news this morning at his media briefing ahead of his side's return to Gallagher Premiership action on Friday night against Bristol Bears.

Simmonds has not played since Exeter's first leg clash with Munster in the Heineken Champions Cup last month due to an ongoing hip issue.

Baxter remarked at the time that he was hopeful that the all-action forward would be able to overcome the issue, but that plan appears to have dissolved and the 27-year-old will undergo the knife imminently.

“Sam will be unlikely (to tour) because he is going to be having an op,” said Baxter. “There are two ways of looking at it. What it will allow him to do is get this niggly hip injury that has been causing him pain – the restrictive thing has been the pain not so much the function – and if he gets this sorted now that means he will have a good recovery time and a good pre-season and it’s a huge year for anybody who has got international ambitions with next year being World Cup year.

“It will really help him get to the level when you talk about from a club perspective level, a couple of years ago he was banging tries in from everywhere. He will want to follow that through because that is what led to his international and his Lions recognition. No one thing is ever a bad or good thing, you just have to drive it in a more positive direction.”

Baxter was speaking on a day when the 36-man squad for next week’s mini-England training camp was revealed to contain not a single Exeter player. Ten clubs were represented but with injuries to Simmonds, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Jack Nowell and Jonny Hill hitting the Chiefs hard and Henry Slade also not included, Exeter, Gloucester and Worcester didn’t get a Test squad look-in with Jones this time.

“Luke Cowan-Dickie has got a good chance of kind of being ready for the end stage of the season so in all possibility could still tour,” reckoned Baxter. “As far as we are looking at it they [Nowell and Hill] will be with England for some rehab and for someone to have a look at them early next week.

“They are progressing pretty well at the moment. If that progression continues there is no reason why (not). The tour is still a little way away. The last round of the Premiership isn’t until a couple of weeks and then you have got semi-final and final before the tour heads off. It’s still over a month before the tour heads off, so they have still got a decent amount of rehab time before those decisions need to be made.”

Cowan-Dickie needed an operation following his knee injury playing for England against Wales in late February, Nowell also required surgery on a broken arm suffered in the mid-March Test in France, while Hill has been unavailable since picking up a high ankle injury with Exeter in January.