England suffered a double injury fright ahead of their tour of Australia after both Manu Tuilagi and Owen Farrell went off early as Saracens advanced into the Premiership final yesterday.
Leicester centre Tuilagi, returning from a knee injury and playing on an artificial pitch for the first time, lasted just 20 minutes before going off with a damaged right leg while trying to tackle United States wing Chris Wyles in a Premiership semi-final match European champions Saracens won 44-17 at their Allianz Park ground in north London.
“Manu has pulled his hamstring. I don’t know how bad it is, but it’s not great. We’ll assess it over the next couple of days,” said Leicester director of rugby Richard Cockerill said.
“We don’t know if he’s out of the tour, we’ll see how he gets on in the next 48 hours before assessing how bad it is.”
Meanwhile Farrell, England’s Six Nations grand slam-winning goalkicker, departed the scene after bearing the brunt of two heavy tackles.
By that stage Farrell had kicked 11 points in a match where Saracens, last season’s Premiership champions, ran in five tries.
“I don’t how serious it is,” said Saracens boss Mark McCall. “He’s got a bang on the rib and you know ribs can go one way or another. Hopefully it goes the right way.”
Eddie Jones, England’s Australian coach, is due to name his squad for next month’s three-Test series against the Wallabies on Sunday.
Saracens’ bid to complete a European and domestic double continued in convincing fashion as they surged into a 31-0 half-time lead thanks to two tries apiece by Wyles and fellow wing Chris Ashton.
Leicester then scored 17 points at the start of the second half.
But the one-time kings of English rugby had left themselves with too much to do.
Last week, Saracens beat Paris-based Racing 92 in the European Champions Cup final.
They will face Exeter in the Premiership final at Twickenham on May 28 after the south-west club overcame Wasps 34-23 in Saturday’s second semi-final.
Quick thinking from former Springbok hooker Schalk Brits and England lock George Kruis saw Saracens opening the scoring with a try from Will Fraser.
Wyles then seized on a loose kick from Leicester fly-half Owen Williams to run in for a try under the posts.
Tuilagi then went off and Leicester’s day got worse as they conceded a third try, with Ashton finishing off a well-worked move that started with a ‘wheeled’ scrum.
An error-strewn Leicester display was summed up when England scrum-half Ben Youngs’ careless pass was intercepted by Wyles for the American’s second try.
The match was all but over as a contest at the break but early in the second half Leicester’s Telusa Veainu crossed for a try before forward drives sent in the Tigers’ Dom Barrow.
But two penalties from former England fly-half Charlie Hodgson, on for Farrell, and Ashton’s second try saw Saracens stop the fightback.
Defeat meant Leicester suffered their second semi-final loss of the season following their European reverse against Racing.