Northampton: 15 Ben Foden, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 George Pisi, 12 James Downey, 11 Paul Diggin, 10 Ryan Lamb, 9 Lee Dickson (capt), 8 Roger Wilson, 7 Phil Dowson, 6 James Craig, 5 Christian Day, 4 Samu Manoa, 3 Brian Mujati, 2 Andy Long, 1 Soane Tonga'uiha. Replacements: 16 Ross McMillan, 17 Alex Waller, 18 Paul Doran-Jones, 19 Mark Sorenson,20 Ben Nutley, 21 Martin Roberts, 22 Stephen Myler, 23 Tom May.
Leicester Tigers: 15 Geordan Murphy (c), 14 Horacio Agulla, 13 Manusamoa Tuilagi, 12 Anthony Allen, 11 Alesana Tuilagi, 10 Toby Flood, 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Thomas Waldrom, 7 Julian Salvi, 6 Tom Croft, 5 Geoff Parling, 4 George Skivington, 3 Dan Cole, 2 George Chuter, 1 Marcos Ayerza Replacements: 16 Tom Youngs, 17 Martin Castrogiovanni, 18 Logovi'i Mulipola, 19 Steve Mafi, 20 Craig Newby, 21 Sam Harrison, 22 Billy Twelvetrees, 23 Scott Hamilton.
Date: Saturday, April 14 Venue: Franklin's Gardens, Kick-off: 14.15 BST (13.15 GMT) Referee: Dave Pearson
In theory the highlight of the weekend. Northampton are very strong at home, going pretty well in general, but......... they don't like it up 'em, and they have a few missing. Mallinder's strategy is all about bullying and very little else, which works very well against weaker Premiership teams. The trouble is that Leicester are not weaker, in fact looking at the personnel you could strongly claim that Leicester have the better pack and Leicester are also a more creative team in general with more facets to their game (along with some iffy defending).
Hartley, Lawes, Clark and Wood are all missing from Northampton's pack and we know they don't tend to do to well when weakened up front. Leicester face the inconsistent Saints front-row having 2 of the world's best scrummagers, and with another 2 on the bench. This may in fact be the closest to full-strength Leicester have been all season. James Craig is likely to be shown up in the back-row and I don't think Dowson and Wilson are on the sort of form to bail him out.
Leicester always come flying home in the Premiership and I fancy them to pull off a rare win at Franklin's Gardens today.
Nuts, nuts, nuts. Allen's pass just goes forwards and it's still 6-14, not 6-21.
Touch judge telling Pearson about offsides, so Pearson says thanks and then ignores them.
Nuts, nuts, nuts. Allen's pass just goes forwards and it's still 6-14, not 6-21.Touch judge telling Pearson about offsides, so Pearson says thanks and then ignores them.
Wasps just cant stop getting injured. Haughton out pre-match, Davis gone after 13 mins. Just trying to work out who they have left in their backline right now.
Anyone watching Quins v Wasps?Wasps just cant stop getting injured. Haughton out pre-match, Davis gone after 13 mins. Just trying to work out who they have left in their backline right now.