Wasps vs Leicester: Joe Launchbury and Ed Slater both fit for Ricoh return

Launchbury has recovered from a neck injury and makes his Wasps return on Saturday

Joe Launchbury (GETTY IMAGES)

This time last year, Joe Launchbury of Wasps and his fellow lock Ed Slater of Leicester had every reason to believe they were on the fast track to World Cup selection and would play a significant role in England’s attempt to recapture the Webb Ellis Cup on home soil.

Then the injuries kicked in, with a vengeance. Launchbury broke down with serious neck problems; Slater wrecked his knee ligaments so comprehensively that the most important season of his career was pretty much over before it began.

The fact that both will return to Premiership duty on Saturday – when Wasps play Leicester before a 30,000-plus Ricoh Arena crowd in one of the games of the campaign to date – is one of the happier coincidences of recent times.

Launchbury, whose stellar form during the 2014 Six Nation persuaded the red-rose coach, Stuart Lancaster, that the England pack should be constructed around him, has been targeting the match for some weeks, but Slater was popularly believed to be out of contention.

“We said we’d bring Ed back when he was ready,” reported Slater’s boss, the Leicester rugby director Richard Cockerill, yesterday. “Ed thought that would be a couple of months ago; I thought it was a case of ‘season finished’. But the medical team have been very good with him, he’s trained really well over the last two weeks, he’s back in the mix and he’ll be involved against Wasps.”

Assuming Launchbury has proved his fitness when the World Cup squad is picked, he will be among the 31 first-choice selections. Slater has a whole lot more to do: still uncapped, the 26-year-old is an outside bet at best. Yet his progress last year was so rapid, he might be worth a place in the wider training squad set to be named later this month.

Nick Abendanon, the former Bath and England full-back who scored a fine try for Clermont Auvergne in the European Champions Cup final at Twickenham, has won the tournament’s Player of the Season award.

Gloucester flanker Ross Moriarty has been cited for allegedly striking Fraser McKenzie with his knee in the European Rugby Challenge Cup final against Edinburgh last Friday.