Saints v Quins team selection

15. Mike Brown
14. Tom Williams
13. Matt Hopper
12. Jordan Turner-Hall
11. Ugo Monye
10. Rory Clegg
9. Danny Care

1. Joe Marler
2. Chris Brooker
3. James Johnston
4. Olly Kohn
5. George Robson
6. Chris Robshaw (c)
7. Luke Wallace
8. Nick Easter

Replacements

16. Joe Gray
17. Mark Lambert
18. Tim Fairbrother
19. Tomas Vallejos
20. Tom Guest
21. Richard Bolt
22. Benjamin Urdapilleta
23. Sam Smith

Largely unchanged from the Exeter game. Kohn is back from injury, Easter comes back in and Guest is on the bench. Clegg continues - lets hope hes been practicing those pens.

Saints Team:

NORTHAMPTON SAINTS TEAM TO PLAY HARLEQUINS
Aviva Premiership Rugby Round 13
Franklin's Gardens
Friday, January 6th, 2012
Kick off 7:45pm

15 Ben FODEN
14 Chris ASHTON
13 George PISI
12 James DOWNEY
11 Noah CATO
10 Ryan LAMB
9 Lee DICKSON
1 Soane TONGA'UIHA
2 Dylan HARTLEY (capt)
3 Paul DORAN JONES
4 Samu MANOA
5 Mark SORENSON
6 Phil DOWSON
7 Tom WOOD
8 Roger WILSON

Replacements
16 Mike HAYWOOD
17 Alex WALLER
18 Brian MUJATI
19 Christian DAY
20 Ben NUTLEY
21 Martin ROBERTS
22 Stephen MYLER
23 Tom MAY

Strong teams from both sides. The front row battle will be fascinating, especially the rematch between Marler and Doran-Jones, and Quins will be hoping that the return of Olly Kohn will add some extra grunt to the tight five.

The back row battle will also be intense, with Robshaw, Wood and perhaps Dowson in contention for EPS spots, Wallace, Nutley and Guest having England or Saxons ambitions and Easter having a real point to prove.

It will be interesting to see if Clegg can get his kicking back on track while maintaining last week's strong overall performance, and Matt Hopper will face a big test against Pisi.

But the pick of the night could well be Foden vs Brown. There's little to choose between them in terms of performance in the prem this season, and each man will want to demonstrate his England credentials.

Hmmm, Mujati coming off the bench - ouch. Thats a big big saints team!
I kind of wish we had Mo Faasavalou for this one.
Its a shame that Karl Dickson isnt fit to come off the bench. The last time the 2 brothers met I thought that he came off slightly better than Lee.

Quins really need to up their game from last week as I kind of get the feeling that the Saints are starting to build momentum (shame they are out of the H-Cup).

Is this Cato's first game for Saints?

Is this Cato's first game for Saints? .

Think he played whilst the RWC was on.

In any event - there is plenty of work for the Quins boys to contain the threat from all over that Saints team.

Luke Wallace vs Tom Wood.....can't wait

with both teams looking to play with pace and england clashes all over the park im looking forward to a great game.

i must say im suprised by mallinders choice of wingers-ashton who if rumour is to be believed no longer wants to play for the club and cato who despite being a talent was poor for us during the world cup and hasnt got game time since.

Interestingly quins put one over on the saints last season at the gardens with a grinding performance, we shall call it 'doing a saracens'

Predicting and hoping for a won win

just need clegg to kick as well as he did against the chiefs and well be quids in

I would be quite happy with us doing another 'Saracens' tonight. Although I do detest Saracens for it!!

I think we'll be happy with a losing bp really. That Saints team looks too strong to lose at home.

It shows that Ashton is still first choice and will be selected by Mallinder when hes available, which is professional of him.