Sexton ban possible blessing as warm-up casualties mount

The World Cup warm-up games have been a mixed bag so far.

There have been awful, one-dimensional stalemates as well as some exciting and closely contested affairs.

Warm-up games are always going to be funny because of the different combinations playing the game, but you also have to wonder where some of the players heads are at when they feel that their place might be more secure and the risk is high coming into the tournament.

Injuries are part of every contact sport, however, the closer you get to tournaments, this brings some nervous approaches from both players and coaches.

There were some serious injuries following the matches last weekend.

Romain Ntamack is the latest victim of a rather innocuous-looking ACL injury. A Finn Russell hand-off caused Ntamack (below) to get his feet stuck for a moment, but what transpired afterwards seemed like nothing more than Ntamack falling over.

The minute he held his knee there would have been huge concern for the health of his knee ligaments. The injury was confirmed yesterday which is a huge blow to France's World Cup preparations.

Cyril Baille is also missing six weeks of action, which will leak into the tournament group stages following an injured calf, picked up in a wheeling scrum.

Props are another problematic position to lose from your squad because every team will play four props in each game, two on either side of the scrum.

Losing one means that you’ll be down to your third choice for twenty minutes of most games because the second choice will start and props rarely play for 80 minutes.

Les Bleus will be hoping for good news on that front.

Jack van Poortvliet is another whose World Cup was ended during England’s stuttering performance against Wales.

The scrum-half (above) rolled