QUIRKE OF FATE

Raffi eyes England spot after late surge

- Neil Squires

RAFFI QUIRKE is banking on Sale's eye-catching run to the Premiership playoffs bringing him back into the England fold this summer.

The 22-year-old scrum-half shot to international prominence with a brilliant match-winning try against South Africa in 2021, only for a dispiriting sequence of injuries to cost him his place in the England picture since then.

But back enjoying an uninterrupted run with the club who keep on defying the odds in the race to Twickenham, Quirke is hoping for a place on this summer's tour of Japan and New Zealand.

He said: "That South Africa game seems like a long, long time ago. I feel young - I am just at the start of my career so the fact that was almost three years ago now is just crazy.