Breaking News: Lawes to start for Northampton Saints against Gloucester
Courtney Lawes starts for Saints tomorrow in what will be his first appearance since injuring his knee against Newcastle on New Year’s Eve.
The England lock will play in the back row for Saints, with Calum Clark leading the side from openside.
Ryan Lamb returns at fly-half against his old club after two weeks with England Saxons, while Russian Vasily Artemyev is back on the wing in place of Noah Cato.
And in the second row Christian Day is partnered by Samu Manoa, with Mark Sorenson dropping to the bench along with flanker Ben Nutley.
Director of rugby Jim Mallinder says Saints will need to step up their performance levels from the win over London Wasps.
Saints take on Gloucester as Aviva Premiership Rugby returns after a four-week absence, looking to build on the run of results in December and January that took the team into the league’s top four.
But Mallinder says that the players who take to the field will have to be at their best to continue the winning form in the south west.
“Gloucester have shown their quality in their recent home matches, especially against Toulouse a few weeks ago,” said Mallinder. “They have a pack that can produce good ball and a set of backs that can pose plenty of problems if they get on the front foot. The Kingsholm crowd can also be a factor and the supporters really get behind their team if they start scoring points.
“We had a boost last week when we got the result we wanted to get into the LV= Cup semi-finals, but we will have to step up from that performance if we want to come home from Gloucester with a positive result.
“Everyone has trained well this week despite the weather and is determined to keep our cup momentum going as we turn our attention back to our Aviva Premiership Rugby campaign.”
NORTHAMPTON SAINTS TEAM TO PLAY GLOUCESTER
Aviva Premiership Rugby Round 14
Kingsholm
Saturday, February 11th, 2012
Kick off 2:15pm
15 Paul DIGGIN
14 Jamie ELLIOTT
13 George PISI
12 James DOWNEY
11 Vasily ARTEMYEV
10 Ryan LAMBE
9 Martin ROBERTS
1 Soane TONGA’UIHA
2 Andy LONG
3 Brian MUJATI
4 Samu MANOA
5 Christian DAY
6 Courtney LAWES
7 Calum CLARK (capt)
8 Roger WILSON
Replacements
16 Mike HAYWOOD
17 Alex WALLER
18 Paul DORAN JONES
19 Mark SORENSON
20 Ben NUTLEY
21 Ryan GLYNN
22 Stephen MYLER
23 Tom MAY
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Weather for Northampton
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: East
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