Maro Itoje to be fit for Six Nations as Mark McCall demands improvement on 51-27 Saracens win over Cardiff

Maro Itoje will be fit in time for the Six Nations to ease England’s injury concerns after Saracens boss Mark McCall revealed that the lock will miss “less than eight weeks” with the chipped knee-cap he suffered nearly six weeks ago.

Itoje picked up the injury while in Portugal with England for their pre-autumn internationals training camp at the end of October, but the issue did not flare up until last weekend’s Premiership victory over Wasps.

The 24-year-old missed the 51-25 Heineken Champions Cup victory over Cardiff Blues on Sunday afternoon as he watched on from the Allianz Park stands, and he will not play again in 2018 which rules him out of the return fixture in Wales next weekend plus the Premiership festive fixtures against Exeter Chiefs and Worcester Warriors. But while McCall does not know an exact return date, there was good news for England boss Eddie Jones - who watched the game at Allianz Park - in that he will be back in action before the Six Nations curtain-raiser against Ireland on 2 February.

“It’s not clear just how long it’s going to be,” McCall said after watching his side fight back from an 18-13 half-time deficit to score 38 consecutive points to take the game away from Cardiff. “He’s got a chip in his patella. It will be more than four and less than eight weeks, I would say. But it will depend how functional he is. It doesn’t require surgery or anything, so it will depend how the rehab goes and just how functional he is.”

The injury, while fairly long-term, almost went unnoticed as he played all four autumn internationals as well as last week’s win over Wasps, but McCall was at peace with his international appearances in November.

“There’s no issues with that at all,” McCall added. “He just got a bang on his knee, but you all saw how well he played in the autumn internationals, so there was nothing too sinister about it. Nothing to worry about. But after he played for us against Wasps the pain was still there and we thought we’re going to have to have a closer look. So we had a CAT scan done, but he’ll be back in time for the Six Nations.

“There’s always constant communication between England and ourselves. We were aware there had been pain in his knee.”

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For the second week in a row McCall was unhappy with Saracens’ first-half display as they conceded two tries - one a mesmerising score from Cardiff full-back Matthew Morgan - before turning on the style with six tries after the break.

“The first half was strange because we had a lot of possession and also a lot of field position,” he said. “They had a stack 14-man front line and we found it difficult to get quick ball. We were down five or 10 per cent in some areas and we got that second half. But to be honest we are a bit dissatisfied with the way we played. We’d expect a team who really put it to us first half to step up again, and we’re going to have to as well.

“There were certain things today which just weren’t good enough. We need to be better than we were, and we played better in the second half - not brilliantly - and we probably got a few things which went our way. But there’s a bit of a dissatisfied feel.”

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One of the big positives - and despite McCall’s feeling there were plenty of them given the 27-point win - was the impact of replacement No 8 Ben Earl, who scored two tries with his first two meaningful touches within two minutes of each other.

“I gave away a penalty with my first touch but the next two were a lot more positive,” said Earl, who also played a part in two over tries and could easily have rivalled the returning Mako Vunipola as man of the match. “I was just in the right place at the right time to get two tries.

“People talk about the bench as game changers these days and we spoke as a unit about when we come on making a difference and bringing a bit of impetus. That’s the point of substitutions – bringing a lift to the pitch.

“We didn’t work as hard as we should have done in the first half but at least we had another 40 minutes to make amends and we did that thankfully.

“The second half was closer to the real Saracens but there’s still a huge amount left in us. That’s the most exciting thing. We have got quite a good result on the scoreline anyway without even playing close to what we are capable of.”

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Saracens should have George Kruis back for selection for next week’s return leg where they can potentially qualify for the last-eight depending on other results, and Cardiff Blues head coach John Mulvihill hopes to have a few names back themselves in order to try and repeat the first-half performance that they produced here at Allianz Park, where Blaine Scully and Morgan’s wonder-try put them deservedly in front.

“We should get four or five of those guys back next week,” Mulvihill said. “They had a few guys missing as well which is a bit scary but they’ve got some good depth, they’ll be in to qualify so they’ll bring their best team next week.

“We’ll just have to be on it again otherwise we’ll be on the wrong end of the scoreboard. But it will be great to welcome some of those boys back to the Arms Park, some haven’t played for quite a while so it’ll be great to see them again."