Northampton Saints v Leicester Tigers: Match preview for Friday's cup clash
Competition: Premiership Rugby Cup (Pool B, match one)
Venue: cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens, Northampton
Date and kick-off time: Friday, November 1, 2024, 7.45pm
Weather forecast: 11c, cloudy
Live television coverage: TNT Sports
Referee: Harry Walbaum
Assistant referee: Adam Leal and Calum Howard
No.4: Neil Chivers
TMO: Peter Allan
Saints: 15 George Hendy; 14 Mitieli Vulikijapani (guest player), 13 Tom Litchfield, 12 Charlie Savala, 11 Tom Seabrook; 10 George Makepeace-Cubitt, 9 Archie McParland; 1 Tarek Haffar, 2 Craig Wright, 3 Luke Green; 4 Chunya Munga (c), 5 Gavin Thornbury; 6 Fyn Brown, 7 Angus Scott-Young; 8 Henry Pollock.
Replacements: 16 Nathan Langdon, 17 Emmanuel Iyogun, Sonny Tonga’uiha, 19 Will Spencer, 20 Josh Kemeny, 21 Jonny Weimann, 22 James Ramm, 23 Ewan Baker.
Leicester Tigers: 15 George Pearson; 14 Malelili Satala, 13 Will Wand, 12 Solomone Kata, 11 Jack Kinder; 10 Jamie Shillcock, 9 Tom Whiteley; 1 James Whitcombe, 2 Finn Theobald-Thomas, 3 Tim Hoyt; Côme Joussain, 5 Tom Manz, 6 Matt Rogerson, 7 Emeka Ilione, 8 Kyle Hatherell.
Replacements: 16 Archie Vanes, 17 Archie van der Flier, 18 Henry Mountford, 19 Lewis Chessum, 20 Sam Williams, 21 Charlie Bemand, 22 Charlie Myall, 23 Tom Threlfall.
Not available for Saints selection: Juarno Augustus, Emeka Atuanya, Fraser Dingwall, Sam Graham, Tom Lockett, Alex Mitchell, Burger Odendaal, Toby Thame, Robbie Smith.
International duty: Alex Coles, Trevor Davison, Tommy Freeman, George Furbank, Ollie Sleightholme, Fin Smith (all England).
Most recent meeting: Saturday, October 12, 2024: Leicester Tigers 24 Saints 8 (Gallagher Premiership)
Saints director of rugby Phil Dowson: "You get a long period of time with a really young group who are hungry so we can work on our game. We want to get the most our of our training and that game time and the players who haven't been playing and who have been knocking on the door, training hard finally get an opportunity to put on a Saints shirt. Those guys in the Senior Academy who haven't been capped yet get the opportunity to represent the club so I really love the tournament. I enjoy coaching in the PRC and I enjoy watching it, seeing which of our players will step up."
Leicester Senior Academy coach Matt Smith: “It’s fantastic to see so many of the club’s young players getting their opportunity in the cup. The boys have got lots of experience around them, so their job is to just bring the level of effort and physicality required at senior level. Any East Midlands derby means a lot to this club so it will be fantastic for them to experience that tomorrow night.”