'Really beautiful rugby player' to start at 10 for Saints against Leicester Tigers

Fin Smith, who is recovering from a calf injury, and Anthony Belleau, who suffered concussion at Sale Sharks last Saturday, are not available.

George Furbank is more than capable of playing at 10, but he is now with England ahead of the Six Nations, meaning Pater, who doesn't turn 19 until next month, will get the chance to step up this weekend.

And Jake Sharp, who assumes the role of head coach during PREM Rugby Cup weeks, is looking forward to seeing Pater shine.

When asked about Belleau, Sharp said: "He's still on his 12-day HIA so it will be James Pater at 10 this week.

"Pates did it in pre-season against Bedford and Glasgow and he's also done a bit with the England Under-20s in and around that space.

"Pates is a really beautiful rugby player so he can play across the backline and he's got the keys to the team this week, which will be really exciting.

"TJ (Tom James) has done it (played 10) and you've also got Archie McParland and Toby Thame who run around there a bit as well so with how much success we've had with internationals and with some of the lads who are going to get a bit of rest, if you've got lads who can play two or three positions, it's a great place to be.

"We'll have Pates doing it and between Archie and TJ to cover off the bench if needed this week."

Saints are able to select their England Under-20s players this Saturday as the Under-20s Six Nations doesn't start until next weekend.

Pater, Henry Lumley, Jonny Weimann, Oliver Scola, Aiden Ainsworth-Cave and Sonny Tonga'uiha are Saints' representatives in the current England Under-20s squad.

"The Under-20s get first choice in that (PREM Rugby Cup) competition, whereas in the PREM it's the other way around," Sharp explained. "So this week all the Under-20s lads who are available will play. A couple of lads have picked up a knock so they won't.

"They then won't be available for the next two games we play (at Harlequins and Newcastle) but they will be available for the game against Saracens because that's their (Under-20s) fallow week."

Saints, who have a bye in the cup next weekend, are able to give some heavily-worked players some time off over the coming weeks.

"There's a balance now because we've obviously got four games with a week in the middle off so those lads who have played lots of rugby like Chicky (Callum Chick) and Tom Pearson will still be in this week to train but not have the demand on a Saturday that they've been going through for the last eight weeks," Sharp said.

"Obviously some of those lads will then play for England A next week on the week off (against an Ireland XV at Thomond Park on Friday, February 6, kick-off 7.15pm) so there will be a management piece in that, alongside the Under-20s lads and the senior lads.

"Then in that next block we've also got some of the Under-18s lads who are playing in the Academy league as well so there will be lots of rotation in and around it.

"We will be seeing lots of young lads, there might be a couple of lads in on loan because we've got so many props out on international duty, which is a great place to be, so there will be lots of moving parts but lots of the same to expect out of what we're doing."

So how difficult will team selection be during this block of cup games?

"It's tough," Sharp said. "Me and the psychologist (Oli Dixon) have been sitting down during the three or four weeks previous to this to try to get ahead of what the challenge is with your leaders who have gone, what the challenge is with this group who now get the opportunity to be big voices in this group with the internationals away.

"Then also we're trying to figure out who's going to be playing 10, who's going to be calling our lineouts if Tommy Lockett or Chunya (Munga) are away. There's all those different factors.

"But we've got a really nice, strong squad playing this weekend and that will be exciting to hopefully lead into the tournament."

With Saints set to field plenty of young players against Tigers this weekend, the experience of men such as Sam Graham will be key.

"Every week we've got a leadership group that's between five and 10 players who will circulate so Sammy Graham will captain the team this week, but with lots of experience around it with Tom Lockett in and around it, Archie McParland and Tom James sharing that nine spot, James Pater at 10," Sharp said.

"The challenge will be after that England A game, what does our squad look like after this week?

"We'll have England Under-20s lads away and with all the success we're having around the group, there will be lots of different challenges, but all it does is give another opportunity for another voice to step forward, and the more leaders we've got and the more exposure we're getting in the group, the better."

Saints have brought a huge amount of talented players through their Academy in recent years, using the PREM Rugby Cup as a tool to give youngsters exposure.

"We're a development club and Dows (Phil Dowson) and Sam (Vesty) will always talk about that," Sharp said.

"Dows and Sam have built something that means that if you've shown you're ready, you're going to get your opportunity. That won't stop now in this competition.

"And if we look back to the Bath game (when Saints won at The Rec in December), when everyone wrote us off, a lot of those lads had played in this tournament in the past couple of years.

"For us to have success over a long period of time, some of the young lads need lots of exposure, some of them just need topping up because they've not had lots of rugby and then some of them will get their debuts so Freddie St John will get his debut this week off the bench and we'll have some lads who have played 100 times for the club so it's a real nice balance with a different outlook in what the team looks like."

Saints are hoping to welcome players back from injury in the next few weeks, with Tom West (knee) and Tom Litchfield (hamstring) closing in on a return to action.

"Litchy is back into just unit training this week so he will be running this week and available for the week after," Sharp said.

"Tom West is in units back end of this week and available the week after the weekend off.

"So you're going to see Litchy coming back, you're going to see Westy coming back and there will be some lads who get dropped out of their international groups so it's about whether it's a good opportunity for them to keep playing.

"There are going to be some lads who haven't had as many minutes as they would have liked this year to date so we can keep getting them ready and fundamentally we've got the first opportunity of the season to win a trophy, which is really exciting, but then the big focus we've gone after is how good an individual you can be, which makes the unit group better, the team better and therefore leading to performance.

"The success we've had over the past couple of years is built on how hard the whole group train against each other, and a lot of those plaudits come on Saturday for the group on the pitch, but actually we're always celebrating how hard the group is training together and pushing together."