Paul Hodgson should be fine to team up with the England squad on Monday despite limping off in London Irish's 26-24 victory over Leeds.
Exiles chief expects Hodgson to be fine to team up with England
Scrum-half Paul Hodgson should be fine to team up with the England squad on Monday despite limping off in London Irish's 26-24 victory over Leeds.
Hodgson, who was called into Brian Ashton's training squad for the RBS Six Nations when fellow Exile Peter Richards withdrew, was replaced at half-time at Headingley after his suffered some swelling to his leg.
However, London Irish director of rugby Brian Smith insisted the decision to bring Hodgson off for Warren Fury was just a precautionary measure.
He said: "Paul took a blow to his leg and it tightened up a little bit but he'll be fine to front up with England on Monday - there's no problem there.
"The fact that Mike Bundy, our club doctor, also works for the RFU meant he was quite anxious to get him off.
"From our perspective, we want to look after him because he's got international aspirations and Warren Fury is a very talented scrum-half as well.
"When one bloke steps aside, we expected another one to step up and that gave Warren a chance to do that."
Determined
Irish were given a scare by Leeds before holding on for the win, while tries from Delon Armitage, Tomas De Vedia, Sailosi Tagicakibau and David Paice saw them secure a bonus point.
And although Smith paid tribute to Leeds, he was left disappointed his side allowed them to comeback into the match and level at 21-21.
"Credit to Leeds - they were very determined, desperate and brought an intensity which I expected," he said.
"When we wanted to, we managed to control the game but the issue for us as coaches is why we got ourselves into those positions in the first place."
Smith's praise will have been scant reward for Leeds director of rugby Stuart Lancaster, who saw his side left adrift at the bottom of the table.
And having come so close to only a second win of the season, Lancaster knows Leeds can't afford to keep wasting chances.
He said: "We need to start winning games and today was an opportunity missed.
"I take attitude and spirit as a given for a Leeds Carnegie side, but what we've got to do is match with technical execution and composure.
"I thought we were probably as good as we've been all season in that regard, but obviously we could have taken it five per cent more."
