Jamie George a Six Nations doubt as Saracens fall to Castres
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Jamie George is a doubt for England’s Six Nations opener against Ireland in Dublin after limping out of Saracens’ Champions Cup defeat by Castres with a hamstring injury to cap a miserable week for the former national captain. George, who was replaced by Maro Itoje as England captain last Tuesday, was introduced as a second-half replacement here but could do little to stop Saracens letting the match slip through their fingers, ensuring they face an away fixture at Toulon in the last 16.
![[Saracens’ Juan Martín González (right) and Castres’ Theo Chabouni contest a high ball.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/aaca44d4e8001deb27c59f4be801c5e5e84a58e5/0_135_4184_2510/master/4184.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Compounding matters for the 34-year-old hooker, he was withdrawn in the closing minutes and with England, who will head to Girona for a warm-weather training camp this week, beginning their Six Nations campaign in less than a fortnight, Steve Borthwick has a sizeable headache. “Jamie has hurt his hamstring,” McCall said. “We’re not quite sure how serious it is at the moment.”.
Toulouse score 80 points against Leicester. Leicester suffered their heaviest Champions Cup defeat as the holders, Toulouse, thrashed them 80-12 at Stade Ernest-Wallon. The French team ran in 12 tries to deny the Tigers a home draw in the competition's round of 16. Toulouse ran in six first-half tries with the captain, Antoine Dupont, beginning the rout and Emmanuel Meafou adding a brace. Ange Capuozzo, Dimitri Delibes and Julien Marchand continued the blitz as Toulouse scored 42 points in a first half where Leicester failed to register a single score. There was slight improvement from Tigers after the break as Jack van Poortvliet and Will Hurd crossed for tries and Jamie Shillcock added a conversion. But Toulouse refused to show mercy as another six tries underlined their intent to retain the trophy. Capuozzo and Dupont scored again and Thibaud Flament went over twice. Thomas Ramos and Matthis Lebel completed the scoring as Leicester, who booked their place in the knockout stage after beating Ulster last weekend, settled for third place in the pool.
