Glasgow Warriors v Northampton Saints: Full team news for the Investec Champions Cup opener

Tarek Haffar is ready to make his Saints debut after being named on the bench for Friday night’s Investec Champions Cup opener at Glasgow Warriors (kick-off 8pm).
Tarek Haffar (photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)Tarek Haffar (photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)
Tarek Haffar (photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Haffar switched to Saints following the sad demise of London Irish during the summer and he had initially been battling an injury.

But he is now fit enough to be named among the replacements, with Alex Waller coming in to start at loosehead and Ethan Waller given the weekend off.

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Saints have made a total of eight changes to the team that won 18-12 at Saracens last weekend, with Waller part of a fresh front row, which also includes Curtis Langdon and Paul Hill.

Chunya Munga and Alex Coles picked up injuries at Saracens so Tom Lockett and Alex Moon come into the 23 to form the second row partnership.

Angus Scott-Young starts at seven as he replaces Tom Pearson, who gets a bit of a breather on the bench.

Alex Mitchell comes in for Tom James at scrum-half, while George Hendy replaces Tom Seabrook on the wing.

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Hooker Robbie Smith returns from a calf injury and is named among the replacements against one of his former clubs.

Munga, Coles, Matthew Arden, Juarno Augustus, Will Glister, Rory Hutchinson, Emmanuel Iyogun, Lewis Ludlam, Joel Matavesi, Burger Odendaal and James Ramm are all sidelined due to injury.

Glasgow are currently have Fraser Brown, Facundo Cordero, Jack Dempsey, Jamie Dobie, JP du Preez and Kyle Steyn on their injury list.

Glasgow Warriors: McKay; Cancelliere, Jones, McDowall (c), Smith; Jordan, Kennedy; Bhatti, Matthews, Z Fagerson; Manjezi, Gray; Cummings, Darge, M Fagerson.

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Replacements: Turner, Kebble, Sordoni, Williamson, Miller, Vailanu, Afshar, Thompson.

Saints: Furbank (c); Sleightholme, Freeman, Dingwall, Hendy; F Smith, Mitchell; A Waller, Langdon, Hill; Lockett, Moon; Lawes, Scott-Young, Graham.

Replacements: R Smith, Haffar, Davison, Mayanavanua, Pearson, James, Litchfield, Seabrook.