Matt Stevens has been ruled out of England's three-Test summer tour to South Africa after suffering a shoulder injury.

Christian Wade will get a chance to press his claims for the Test series against South Africa after being named in a strong England team to face the Barbarians.

Ben Foden is determined to give Mike Tindall a Twickenham farewell he will never forget after the former England captain was named in the Barbarians team for Sunday's non-cap international.

Phil Dowson will captain England in Sunday's non-cap international against the Barbarians at Twickenham.

Australia coach Robbie Deans is expecting a fired-up Scotland side when they face off next month.

Steven Shingler is tied to Wales and ineligible to play Test rugby for Scotland, the International Rugby Board's council ruled in a unanimous decision.

Australia coach Robbie Deans is wary of the threat Wales will pose in the three-Test series which kicks off on June 9 in Brisbane.

Wales caretaker coach Rob Howley has named four uncapped players in a 38-man training squad to prepare for next month's clash against the Barbarians and three-Test Australia tour.

The parallels are freakish: England will travel to South Africa in June for a five-match tour during which they will attempt to lay solid foundations for an assault on the world title a little over three years hence – just as they did in 2000. And we all know what happened then. As every coach involved in that previous trip, from Sir Clive Woodward and Andy Robinson to Brian Ashton and Phil Larder, has subsequently asserted, it was the Springbok Experience that made it all possible.

The parallels are freakish: England will travel to South Africa in June for a five-match tour during which they will attempt to lay solid foundations for an assault on the world title a little over three years hence – just as they did in 2000. And we all know what happened then. As every coach involved in that previous trip, from Sir Clive Woodward and Andy Robinson to Brian Ashton and Phil Larder, has subsequently asserted, it was the Springbok Experience that made everything else possible.

Wales defence coach Shaun Edwards is to join the London Irish coaching staff after the Grand Slam winners' summer tour to Australia.

England finished the Six Nations with a striking air of optimism, largely generated by the holy trinity in their back-room team. Suddenly, they find themselves facing a five-match, three-Test tour of Springbok country – as demanding a summer schedule as they have ever undertaken – with what might be called a trinity of holes: no full-time attack coach, no specialist defence strategist and a gap in the line-out where Leicester's Tom Croft used to be.

Only a fully paid-up member of the Institute of Clairvoyants or an absolute fool would wager a penny piece on the outcome of tomorrow's Heineken Cup semi-final between Clermont Auvergne, the form side in France, and Leinster, the form side in Europe.

A few days before the World Cup final between New Zealand and France in Auckland last October, the All Blacks coach Wayne Smith quietly confirmed that while his long association with the silver fern would end at the final whistle, he had every intention of returning to international rugby in time for the next global gathering, in England in 2015. What he did not know then, and does not quite know yet, is whether he could work with a side good enough to relieve his own country of the Webb Ellis Cup.