Gloucester prop and Premiership rookie Paul Doran-Jones is set to be named on the England bench against Argentina this weekend.
Injury crisis paves way for Premiership rookie's promotion
Gloucester's Paul Doran-Jones is set to be fast-tracked to Test match rugby against Argentina this weekend as England's propping crisis deepens further.
The 24-year-old appears ready to make the move up despite having played just 266 minutes of Guinness Premiership rugby following his move to Kingsholm from Championship side London Welsh.
His promotion comes after David Wilson was ruled out of Saturday's clash with a neck injury, joining Phil Vickery, Julian White and Jason Hobson on the list of missing tightheads.
England are also missing lead loosehead Andrew Sheridan and were dealt a further blow on Tuesday when veteran Bath prop David Barnes also joined the absentee list after damaging a knee in training.
Doran-Jones therefore remains just about the last man standing and is set to be named as a replacement, with Duncan Bell - who replaced Wilson against Australia at the weekend - poised for his first Test start since 2005.
Martin Johnson will confirm his side at noon on Wednesday, with Tim Payne set to remaining on the loosehead.
Formidable
The timing of the run of injuries could not be worse given Argentina's reputation as having one of the most formidable packs in world rugby - their front row boasting the scrummaging unit of Mario Ledesma, Rodrigo Roncero and Martin Scelzo.
Even so, England scrum coach Graham Rowntree is confident having seen Doran-Jones play this season that he can cope with the giant leap forward.
"The other coaches didn't know what he looked like until Sunday night but I have been watching Paul all season," said Rowntree.
"He can play both sides of the scrum and I think he is a true prospect for the future.
"We could be playing against easier scrums this weekend for sure, it is the deep end. Paul is the next guy in and we get on with it.
"It is a big step up but Paul is good enough and that is what we will be telling him.
"We have watched his games. There are plenty of good players who have come through and stepped up and I back him to do it.
"He has got a great attitude, he is keen and he has impressed all the other coaches. We will find out about players like Doran-Jones and Courtney Lawes."
Crane makes way
Elsewhere, Johnson has dropped Leicester number eight Jordan Crane from his 22-man squad, with James Haskell favourite to take over.
Joe Worsley, who provides England with an option in all three back-row positions, returns but Johnson has decided against calling fit-again Simon Shaw back after the Lions lock made his first start of the season for Wasps in the LV= Cup on Sunday.
And in spite of the woeful lack of creativity and penetration seen against the Wallabies, Ben Foden, Mathew Tait and David Strettle remain out of favour.
England dominated the first half-hour against Australia but failed to create any try-scoring opportunities and were hampered badly by slow ball.
Johnson's side have now failed to score any tries in their last fixtures against Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.
"Are we happy we struggle to score tries against the southern-hemisphere teams? No, of course not, and it won't get any easier against Argentina," said attack coach Brian Smith.
"It is an issue we are trying to address. The last autumn series was barren at try-time. We have made adjustments and you can see them in how we are trying to play.
"We had scored 28 tries in eight matches going into the November series and we were entitled to think we could score against Australia. If our execution had been more precise I think we would have scored more.
"But we left a few out there and we are disappointed about that. We did some silly things last weekend that won't happen again.
"We have to get back on the horse and go out there to score tries. We were about 50 per cent effective last weekend and our aim is to be 75 per cent effective in this game with a view to stepping it up again for the New Zealand game."
