Northampton Saints face an anxious wait on Alex Mitchell's fitness as they prepare to meet Exeter Chiefs in Saturday's Gallagher Premiership final at Twickenham, with the England scrum-half racing to recover from a pulled hamstring.
Mitchell has been sidelined by the injury but is closing in on a return that would hand Saints a significant lift for the title decider. Director of rugby Phil Dowson refused to commit either way when asked whether his first-choice nine would be involved.
"There is a chance — I would hate to say whether it is good or bad," Dowson said. "We have got to make sure we get the balance right so that if Alex does get involved he can do enough minutes to cover us off."
Complicating the call is England's interest. Mitchell is Steve Borthwick's first-choice scrum-half, and with the national side opening their Nations Championship campaign in July, his workload is being managed with one eye on the Test window. According to The Times, the final say on his availability may rest as much with England as with Northampton.
Saints reached the final on the back of George Furbank's two-try farewell display against Leicester Tigers, and the departing full-back is in no mood to play it safe at Twickenham.
"We want to go out and just attack this game," Furbank said. "Often in finals you can play within yourselves and play a bit safe. I don't think we're a good team when we do that. So for us it's about going and expressing ourselves, attacking the game and performing the way that we want to perform."
That attacking edge has been embodied by Henry Pollock, the young back-rower whose performances through the play-offs have caught the eye in his first season of knockout rugby.
Standing in Northampton's way is an Exeter side enjoying an unlikely resurgence. Rob Baxter's Chiefs, rebuilt since the team that dominated English and European rugby at the turn of the decade, stunned reigning champions Bath 27-26 in their semi-final, surviving a frantic finish to reach their first Premiership final since their title-winning era.
Exeter centre Henry Slade said the win was forged in desperation. "We were fully committed to defending what was in front of us and put our bodies on the line to protect our line," Slade said. "I am so proud of the boys. When you are fighting for your mates and each other, it gives you that little extra bit more in you than you think and that really came to fruition today."
Player of the match Sam Skinner, who helped hold a Bath attacker up over the line in the closing moments, pointed to the physical battle. "We approached it one moment at a time and these types of games are won and lost on physicality really," Skinner said. "If we matched physically we knew we could come good. Huge credit to the boys up front."
Dowson, who watched Exeter recover from 33-7 down to draw at Franklin's Gardens earlier in the season, knows the threat well. "What [director of rugby] Rob Baxter does there in terms of putting a group together and how deeply they believe and how hard they work for each other is no secret to us," he said. "I've a huge amount of respect for the environment he has put together."
Whether Mitchell makes it or not, Northampton start as many people's favourites. But Exeter's late-season surge — and the memory of that Franklin's Gardens comeback — is reason enough for Saints to brace for the physical fight Skinner promised.
