If Martin Johnson thought things could get only better for England after the Matt Stevens affair earlier this week, the loss of a third forward this month from his Six Nations squad showed how the start of the new year has been even worse than the end of the old one for the national team manager.
The Leicester flanker Lewis Moody, a rival to Jonny Wilkinson for the tag of European rugby's most crocked player, will not play again until the end of April after having surgery on an ankle he broke in training the day before. It is almost a year since the 29-year-old played for England after an injury-ravaged 2008 but his absence will be all the more marked because Wasps' Tom Rees is also out of the Six Nations after damaging knee ligaments.
Bath's Michael Lipman is likely to be summoned as England's open-side replacement with London Irish's uncapped Steffon Armitage an alternative. So little has gone right for Johnson since he was appointed as England's team manager after last year's Six Nations that it is as if he kicked a black cat while walking under a ladder.
"There is never a good time to get injured," said Moody, who will miss the Tigers' key Heineken Cup pool match at the Ospreys tomorrow. "It is even more frustrating when you are playing well. I have felt good since I got back into the team [at the end of October] and I was devastated when a break was confirmed."
By waiting until tomorrow to name Lipman, who featured in the November internationals despite not being a member of England's elite squad, Johnson is clearly anxious not to tempt fate. He will wait until Bath's Heineken Cup clash against Toulouse rounds off the weekend of European action before making his announcement. The Leicester wing Tom Varndell was yesterday named in the England Saxons squad.
Twickenham will next week tell Premier Rugby whether it agrees with a proposal of the 12 Premiership clubs to increase the number of league fixtures by five next season as a way of offsetting the impact of the economic downturn.
The answer is almost certainly to be no when the Rugby Football Union's management board meets next Wednesday, two days after Premier Rugby will brief the media on its reasons for the change, but it is already clear why the two sides are wide apart.
The RFU issued a statement yesterday pointing out that the extra league games would be played on dates that the Union has been trying to fill with an Anglo-Welsh replacement for the EDF Energy Cup. The governing body expressed its concern at the impact it could have on its relationship with the Welsh Rugby Union as well as the financial impact on the four Welsh regions.
But the real reason the weekends are a battleground is television money. The clubs have, from the season after next, negotiated a Premiership television agreement with Sky and Setanta for all Premiership matches. The RFU has concluded one with Sky which takes in any Anglo-Welsh tournament. Whichever sides loses the argument will also lose out financially.
