'Two or three' Wanderers players to feature for Saints against Harlequins

Chris Boyd expects 'two or three' players who featured for the Wanderers to play a part in Saints' Gallagher Premiership game against Harlequins on Friday night.
By The Newsroom
Published 4th Sep 2018, 15:03 BST
Updated 5th Sep 2018, 07:23 BST
Harry Mallinder scored the Wanderers' opening try against Leicester Tigers on Monday night (picture: Kirsty Edmonds)Harry Mallinder scored the Wanderers' opening try against Leicester Tigers on Monday night (picture: Kirsty Edmonds)
Harry Mallinder scored the Wanderers' opening try against Leicester Tigers on Monday night (picture: Kirsty Edmonds)

The Wanderers picked up a 19-18 victory against Leicester Tigers at Loughborough University on Monday night to get their Premiership Rugby Shield title defence off to a winning start.Four summer signings, Taqele Naiyaravoro, Charlie Davies, Will Davis and Andy Symons, were handed starts.Tries from Davis, captain-for-the-night Harry Mallinder and Mike Haywood, allied with two James Grayson conversions, got the job done for the Wanderers.And Boyd said: "I really enjoyed the game, apart from the fact I underestimated the weather and it was colder than I thought!"It was a good game of footy and I know there's some discussion around the A League and how that works around your week, but I really enjoyed the game."For us, certainly early in the season, to have an opportunity for guys to go out and play a competitive game was really good."There are six or seven guys in the team on Monday night who are right in the frame for Premiership selection so it's a good opportunity coming up."I think there will be two or three that came out of that game on Monday night who will be on the bench or in the first 15 this week."They will feature somewhere."Saints fans would love to see Australia wing Naiyaravoro make his first-team debut at Franklin's Gardens on Friday.But he will take time to get fully up to speed, having only arrived in Northampton last week following a post-Super Rugby season break."T didn't get a huge amount of opportunities and he's just got off the plane from Australia and he's shaking off the cobwebs," Boyd said when asked about the winger's display against Tigers."But he's got his big legs going, we had him going in training again this morning, and it's a welcome start for him."Full-back Mallinder was one of the more impressive Wanderers players.And Boyd said: "It was a good second return for Harry, who played most of the game, which was really good."He got a bit of time against Glasgow in pre-season as well so he's not far away from being ready for selection."

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