Rugby Union: Subtracting from divisionals

SELECTIVE availability is as much part of the Divisional Championship as its abiding lack of passion, so the absence of Will Carling and Peter Winterbottom from the London team announced yesterday to play the Midlands at Sudbury on Saturday is scarcely worth raising an eyebrow, writes Steve Bale.

'I have a feeling there will be one or two hamstrings during December,' a leading Rugby Football Union committee man quipped just before England played South Africa and one can see what he means.

Carling is on holiday in the Far East - and why not after leading England to their splendid victory over the Springboks? Winterbottom believes he can best occupy his December by training, though he says he will be available in an emergency. Again perfectly understandable. Neither has anything to prove. But if the divisionals are to be treated as a convenience rather than the unavoidable conduit towards the England team, the exalted status the selectors have consistently accorded them is inevitably undermined.

Chris Oti misses the game due to a muscle twinge at the top of the leg; another Wasp, Steve Pilgrim, takes the wing place that would have been Oti's.

London's selection is of particular interest for the combination of two of the Harlequins back row, Mark Russell and Richard Langhorn, in the second row.

The Midlands, ADT Trophy winners when the England players were unavailable during last year's World Cup, have omitted the former England prop Gary Pearce, who has been injured, for the promising Leicester tight head Darren Garforth.

Teams, Sport in Short, page 29