Eight players in England’s 36-man squad to tour Australia are set to return home from the far side of the world having not played a minute of competitive rugby this summer.
While Ireland have played two midweek games against the New Zealand Maori during their summer Test series against the All Blacks, England have opted to play just the three Test matches against the Wallabies, with players tired and battered after a long slog of a season in the Gallagher Premiership.
Just this week tour captain Courtney Lawes spoke about how training was being tapered down to allow players to recover and patch themselves up for game day.