England fear Dylan Hartley will miss whole QBE autumn series through injury

England hooker Dylan Hartley may be forced to sit out the whole QBE autumn international series with the knee injury he sustained at the weekend.

No concerns

However, Lancaster insists he has no concerns about how either will respond in the Test arena if presented with the opportunity. "We have had other players who have been in that situation," he continued. "Tom Croft was one of our key players in the Six Nations and he wasn't available for (the tour of) South Africa but Tom Johnson took his opportunity. "Hopefully that can happen again. One thing I would say about trusting players who haven't got that much experience is that we have always gone with our gut instinct and to date they haven't let us down. "Youngs has been playing well. He has been given big responsibility by Leicester in the Premiership and in Europe. "David has matured as a player. He has had his ups and downs but I spoke to him today and he is excited. He said he is ready to stake his claim."