The All Blacks legend was left out of the 22 that destroyed Toulon 52-11 to book a European Challenge Cup quarter-final tie at home to Connacht.

It came after a week of speculation about the fly-half's future at Northampton, with reports in France suggesting he is in talks with Saturday's victim's Toulon.

Director of rugby Jim Mallinder stated he wanted Spencer to see out the remaining 18 months of his contract at the Gardens, but after seven straight games on the bench and then being left out altogether, speculation is bound to continue about the 33-year-old's future.

Forwards coach Dorian West explained Saints simply wanted to give Barry Everitt some much-needed game time as the Irishman played the last eight minutes.

West said: "We needed to have a look at Barry Everitt, he has been around and playing well in the second team. Carlos played well in the second team on Monday night and he had a good game, so we will have a difficult selection decision to make this week."

Saints will also have to cope with the disruption of the Six Nations as they look for their first Guinness Premiership away win at Harlequins this Saturday.

Saints will be without England stars Ben Foden and Dylan Hartley for the clash at the The Stoop.

They flew out with the England Elite Performance Squad to Portugal on Sunday for a week's training ahead of the Six Nations opener against Italy.

And Northampton's three Scotland internationals Scott Gray, Sean Lamont and Euan Murray will be away training in Edinburgh as Frank Hadden starts his preparations for the Six Nations, with the Scots starting against champions Wales.

West said: "We are going to work really hard this week, we are going to put some problems we had on Saturday right.

"We can't take our foot off the gas and we have got good competition for places, which is a bonus.

"We lose a few players to international duty and we will train for the first three days without the Scottish players, so selection is going to be interesting next week without half of the people here.

"The Scottish lads come back for the last two days, but then we have to decide if they are ready to play on the Saturday.

"We really need to pull together this week for a tough game at Harlequins."