Rugby Football Union - Guinness Premiership - Latest Team news ahead of Northampton Saints v London Irish

Latest Team news ahead of Northampton Saints v London Irish


	John Rudd photo by Getty

13 Nov at Franklin's Gardens KO 12.30

Northampton Saints Team News

Wing John Rudd and hooker Dan Richmond have been handed their opportunity to impress head coach Alan Solomons in the absence of England duo Ben Cohen and Steve Thompson.

Both players have already started games this season and have both played for the Saints' second team, the Wanderers.

Saints will be hoping to secure their first home league win since September 11 against their old enemy London Irish, who beat Saints at Franklin's Gardens last season.

Other changes to the starting line-up include Matt Lord's return to lock in the absence of Selborne Boome, who has suffered a reoccurrence of his knee injury.

Solomons said today: "We have got to break the losing habit. I thought we had started to get out of the hole with the game against Glasgow. Then I thought we really played well against Llanelli, so that's why I was so disappointed that we didn't get the win against Leeds.

"We took two steps forward and we took one back, and it's time to move forward again.

"We have said to ourselves: 'This is unacceptable.' We have got to eliminate those individual errors at key moments in the game."

He added: "The ultimate responsibility is the coach's. I accept that but the team is very tight and the club has been very supportive."

15 BRUCE REIHANA
14 John Rudd
13 Marc Stcherbina
12 Chris Hyndman
11 Wylie Human
10 PAUL GRAYSON
9 MARK ROBINSON
1 ROBBIE KEMPSON
2 Dan Richmond
3 Chris Budgen
4 Matt Lord
5 Damien Browne
6 ANDREW BLOWERS
7 CORNE KRIGE (capt)
8 Grant Seely

Replacements
16 Johan van Wyk
17 Brett Sturgess
18 Ed O'Donoghue
19 Mark Soden
20 Johnny Howard
21 Shane Drahm
22 Andy Vilk

International players in capital letters

London Irish Team News

To Follow.................

Summary of meetings between the teams in the Premiership

Played    15
Northampton Saints Won 10 66.7%
London Irish Won   5 33.3%
Drawn    0 0%

Biggest Win for Northampton Saints 51 - 10 13 Dec 1997
Biggest Win for London Irish 48 - 12 18 Nov 2001
Northampton Saints top try scorer vs London Irish Budge Pountney 5 tries
Northampton Saints top points scorer vs London Irish Paul Grayson 145 points
London Irish top try scorer vs Northampton Saints Niall Woods 5 tries
London Irish top points scorer vs Northampton Saints Barry Everitt 68 points

Previous Premiership Meetings

04 Jan 2004 ZP Northampton Saints vs London Irish 36 - 15 Madejski Stadium
11 Oct 2003 ZP Northampton Saints vs London Irish 24 - 30 Franklin's Gardens
04 Jan 2003 ZP Northampton Saints vs London Irish 10 - 22 Franklin's Gardens
27 Oct 2002 ZP Northampton Saints vs London Irish 14 - 12 Madejski Stadium
19 May 2002 ZCP Northampton Saints vs London Irish 38 - 14 Madejski Stadium
29 Dec 2001 ZP Northampton Saints vs London Irish 24 - 15 Franklin's Gardens
18 Nov 2001 ZP Northampton Saints vs London Irish 12 - 48 Madejski Stadium
17 Mar 2001 ZP Northampton Saints vs London Irish 10 - 13 Madejski Stadium
26 Aug 2000 ZP Northampton Saints vs London Irish 27 - 10 Franklin's Gardens
26 Jan 2000 ZP Northampton Saints vs London Irish 44 - 20 The Stoop

After successive wins in the European Cup, it was back to a sixth consecutive loss in the Zurich Premiership at Leeds on Friday night. Another Saints slip up in this match and they will set an unwanted Northampton league record of seven losses in a row.

London Irish have now won three matches in a row in all competitions and you have to go back to December-January 2002-03 to find the last time that the Exiles did that. Irish have won their last two away matches at Sale and Auch.

Amazingly the last four Premiership clashes between the two have been won by the away side with the Saints last win over London Irish at Franklin’s Gardens being 24-15 in December 2001.

Mark Mapletoft has made 99 Premiership career appearances – 40 for Gloucester, 12 for Saracens, 15 for Harlequins and 32 for London Irish.