Prem Playoffs - double Derby Weekender.

STARTING XV
15 Freddie Steward [54]
14 Harry Potter [39]
13 Matías Moroni [34]
12 Dan Kelly [42]
11 Guy Porter [43]
10 George Ford [127]
9 Ben Youngs [280]
1 Ellis Genge (c) [109]
2 Julián Montoya [25]
3 Dan Cole [288]
4 Harry Wells [154]
5 Calum Green [89]
6 Hanro Liebenberg (vc) [57]
7 Tommy Reffell [76]
8 Jasper Wiese [43]

REPLACEMENTS
16 Charlie Clare [50]
17 Nephi Leatigaga [66]
18 Joe Heyes [99]
19 Ollie Chessum [29]
20 George Martin [37]
21 Jack van Poortvliet [47]
22 Freddie Burns [101]
23 Nemani Nadolo [36]

NORTHAMPTON SAINTS XV: 15 Tommy Freeman, 14 Matt Proctor, 13 Fraser Dingwall, 12 Rory Hutchinson, 11 Courtnall Skosan, 10 Dan Biggar, 9 Alex Mitchell; 1 Emmanuel Iyogun, 2 Sam Matavesi, 3 Ehren Painter, 4 Alex Coles, 5 Api Ratuniyarawa, 6 Courtney Lawes, 7 Lewis Ludlam (c), 8 Juarno Augustus

Replacements: 16 Mike Haywood, 17 Alex Waller, 18 Oisín Heffernan, 19 David Ribbans, 20 Aaron Hinkley, 21 Tom James, 22 James Grayson, 23 Piers Francis

No Ashton and no Furbank the surprise selections/injuries. Steward Vs Freeman tees up a great match up between the young 15s.

Saracens Men team to play Harlequins:

1 Mako Vunipola

2 Jamie George

3 Vincent Koch

4 Maro Itoje

5 Tim Swinson

6 Theo McFarland

7 Ben Earl

8 Billy Vunipola

9 Aled Davies

10 Owen Farrell (c)

11 Max Malins

12 Nick Tompkins

13 Elliot Daly

14 Sean Maitland

15 Alex Goode

Replacements:

16 Kapeli Pifeleti

17 Eroni Mawi

18 Alec Clarey

19 Nick Isiekwe

20 Andy Christie

21 Ivan van Zyl

22 Alex Lozowski

23 Duncan Taylor

Harlequins Starting XV

1. Joe Marler

2. Jack Walker

3. Will Collier

4. Matt Symons

5. Hugh Tizard

6. Stephan Lewies (captain)

7. Will Evans

8. Alex Dombrandt

9. Danny Care

10. Marcus Smith

11. Cadan Murley

12. Andre Esterhuizen

13. Joe Marchant

14. Tyrone Green

15. Huw Jones

Impact Players

16. Joe Gray

17. Simon Kerrod

18. Wilco Louw

19. Matas Jurevicius

20. Tom Lawday

21. Lewis Gjaltema

22. Tommy Allan

23. Luke Northmore

Its quite a day for Ben Youngs....i was wondering if he'd play.

Man. Youngs plays? Don't think I could.

I suspect he'll have talked to Tom about it and Tom will have told him to go and win the game for Tiff. If I was a betting man I'd have Tigers to concede the first penalty and Benny to get in at least one scuffle. I'm expecting a pretty fired up performance, after Tom gave his retirement speech before the Bristol game the players went out like they were looking for blood, I'm hoping Borthwick pulls the emotions back a little bit before kick off.

There may be some tears in the pre match minutes silence though.

It's a big risk from Borthwick for me.

No 7&1/2 wrote:It's a big risk from Borthwick for me.

Quite possibly. He's seeing Ben at the training ground so he'll know his frame of mind better than we will. Tom used played rugby as a release whilst Tiff struggled previously, it might be Ben is doing the same.

JVP is on the bench and I'd expect him on around 50 mins. Saints go out the blocks at a million miles an hour and then fade so I guess Tigers will look to make it an arm wrestle early doors and then use the bench for impact and look to take it away from Saints in the second half.

Saracens vs Leicester final I reckon. Two cracking games coming up!

Sam, what's Moroni like? Is he contracted with you?

A rumour that he might be our last signing.

GeordieFalcon wrote:Sam, what's Moroni like? Is he contracted with you?

A rumour that he might be our last signing.

Outstanding defensive 13. Hits above his weight, very clever player with his positioning and when he shoots out the line. As a ball carrier he's ok, some decent footwork and he's got some good footballing skills. Has played wing for Argentina but that was something best for his younger days. He's starting this weekend in Tigers strongest team which is a good indication of where he is. Could be a cult figure up north with Falcons, him and Orlando in midfield would be a handy midfield. Moroni hasn't got 57 caps by accident, he should be off to the world cup as well.

Tigers signed him from the Jags when they went under so I suspect we got him on a cheaper deal than he would have got otherwise. He's said he wants to stay but I don't think we could get the deal done and have opted to keep Scott instead who's probably a) slightly cheaper and b) won't miss the first third of every season on international duty though Moroni's played a fair bit once he's returned. Porter and Cokanasiga will also cover 13 and again are a lot cheaper.

Sounds like an ideal player to start our rebuilding with Walder and Mark Wilson.

Be interesting to see if he is coming or just silly rumours.

GeordieFalcon wrote:Sounds like an ideal player to start our rebuilding with Walder and Mark Wilson.

Be interesting to see if he is coming or just silly rumours.

Only issue you'd have is that you wouldn't see him until November and he'd miss pre season.

Moroni is one of the most complete 13s in the game. Others are better in attack - the likes of Radrada, Vakatawa, Tuilagi, Ioane. A few are equal in defence - Harris, Fickou these days. Very few offer the combination of both Moroni does though. I'd be gutted if he left Tigers.

Just a rumour might be nothing at all KC.

It's would be odd as really it's a12 we need.

We shall see.

Couldn't you move Orlando into 12 and then have Moroni at 13? Might not give you the power carrier you want but defensively it would be good and ball in hand it would bring the outside backs into play.

Yes Orlando has played 12 quite a bit for us to be fair...
We've yet to see the best of him yet hopefully Walder xan get that out of him this season.

Anyway back to today...looking forward to the games.

Agree I think it'll be a Sarries v Tigers final.

If you have BT Sport GF then you might want to tune in at 12:30 ....

Harlequins started well.

And Vunipola struggling a bit against Collier.

great game so far

That's a red I'd say.

Generous to say its low danger.

Filthy offload by Farrell.

Nice offload from Farrell for the try

Jinx

oops Quins asleep after the break

and a good call by Luke Pearce to let the advantage play out

Momentum very much with Saracens now - Quins need to spark back into life

If it were any other side I'd say that this game is done but after last year....

Walkers tackle really turned the game though.

Kicking off now. Farrell bleeding again.

When will players figure that they need to tackle properly?

Ooh - Sarries to 13 men could make it interesting ...

Wow - another head contact from Sarries ...

Game over ... but Sarries will need to be careful not to get a red in the final with all those head contacts ...

Good game.

Quins looked on it at the start but never really got it going in the 2nd half - but entertaining none the less. They'll be disappointed they didn't really capitalise fully on all the yellow cards ...

Yeah some great if slightly cynical defence!

Doesn't look great for Kelly if he's struggling already.

Steward to 12?

Oh dear - Saints odds just got better ...

That's an unfortunate stsrt for Tigers.

Guess he won't be going to Australia either.

No 7&1/2 wrote:Doesn't look great for Kelly if he's struggling already.

That's huge risk to start him if he's not 100%.

Leicester are getting cut up a bit here.

Skosan blowing 2 tries. Ouch.

Two tries gone begging already for Saints

Unlucky that's not a pen and then abysmal pass!

It's so funny when commentators try to pronounce a foreign players name....Hulian Montosha

Hattrick of mistakes from Skosan. Frankly Leicester s best player.

Yeah if Leicester go on to win this game...he won't be popular

Bit conservative by Tigers taking the 3 points maybe with the scrum on top?