New injury blows to test Saints squad
Jim Mallinder is hoping Jon Clarke can ease his injury worries and be fit for tomorrow night's clash with Cornish All Blacks.
After watching his side trounce Rotherham 73-0 at Franklin's Gardens, Saints' director of rugby was concerned to see back-row forward Paul Tupai limp off in the second half with a calf strain, while Neil Starling, starting on the wing in place of the injured Chris Ashton, needed his hamstring strapped up in the second half.
With eight senior players on the sidelines injured, plus Euan Murray and Joe Gray on international duty, Mallinder's squad will be severely stretched by a rare midweek game.
Exeter collected the bonus point in their 36-0 win over Pertemps Bees on Saturday, but a win and four tries at Franklin's Gardens tomorrow will see Saints stretch their lead at the top to 19 points and bring promotion within touching distance.
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Mallinder will want to rotate his side as much as possible and took Bruce Reihana and James Downey off early on Saturday to rest their legs.
Long-term injury victims Robbie Kydd, Sean Lamont, Karl Rudzki and Christian Short were joined by Mark Hopley, Clarke and Ashton at Esher last week, with Damien Browne injuring himself for the Wanderers last Monday.
But Mallinder is hoping Clarke will be able to get off the physio's couch to play.
"We will have a look and see how everybody is," said Mallinder. "We have a number of injuries so we can't replace everybody, but we will probably rotate a few players.
"Clarke is the one who is closest, so hopefully he will be back, but Ashton and Hopley might just need a little longer.
"I think training will be slightly non-existent. You've got to look after these players, it is a physical game. We will have a light team run tonight under the lights to get them used to it. It will be our first game under lights this season."
Reihana ran in a hat-trick of tries and Starling a brace as Saints scored 11 tries against Rotherham.
It was a demolition Tupai failed to see the end off.
"Starling has twinged his hamstring a bit," said Mallinder. "He has got long legs and is prone to doing that. He should be all right if we look after him.
"Tupai seems to have pulled his calf so we will have to look at that today."
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Weather for Northampton
Saturday 26 May 2012
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Temperature: 11 C to 23 C
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