Saints - La Rochelle

[switchskier]

Anyone watching? Good start by Northampton but impressive defence by La Rochelle. They are very well drilled.

[FKAS]

Game starting to come alive, entertaining stuff.

Lawes going off is bad news for Saints and England. He didn't look comfortable.

[p/d]

Dingers done. Early bath. Tough 40 coming up for Saints.

[FKAS]

Then a stonewall red for Dingwall, he's unlucky as he's caught in two minds trying to cover the 13 channel comes up to fast and never gets himself in a good position to complete the tackle.

[p/d]

Nice from Saints

[Puja]

Dingwall and Salakaia Loto both banned, for 3 weeks and 4 weeks resepectively.

Puja

[FKAS]

Dingwall and Salakaia Loto both banned, for 3 weeks and 4 weeks resepectively.

Puja

Pretty much as expected. Not what Saints need before the East Midlands Derby but Tigers are all over the place at the minute so maybe they won't notice their absence.

[Adam_P]

Saw this the other day - it certainly isn't shaping up to be a classic derby. They really need to deconflict internationals and Prem.

[FKAS]

Tigers similar to be honest. Best XV;

1. Cronin - injured
2. Montoya - available
3. Cole - England
4. Wells - available
5. Chessum - England
6. Liebenburg - available
7. Reffell - available
8. Weise - injured
9. JVP - England
10. Pollard - available
11. Potter - available
12. Kelly - England
13. Porter - injured
14. Watson - injured
15. Steward - England

So we have 6 available. Great time to have one of the biggest derby games of the season. Big issue for us is that we're missing our four most experienced props through injury and call ups whilst you've got your first choice to choose from and it's an area we've tended to lean on when beating Saints.

[Adam_P]

The most annoying thing is that this game was originally outside the international window until they re-jigged the fixtures

[FKAS]

Yep someone really shat the bed on that one. I suppose it's still televised and as it's the rest weekend at least tickets will still sell well enough. Just robs us a bit in terms of spectacle.