Milestone man Alex Coles one of 9 Northampton changes for Derby clash

Alex Coles will become the fourth player in the current squad to clock up 150 appearances for Northampton Saints when he takes to the field at Mattioli Woods Welford Road on Saturday.

Eight years after his debut, the 27-year-old England lock follows Fraser Dingwall, Rory Hutchinson and Alex Mitchell in reaching the milestone.

Coles marks one of nine changes to Saints’ side for the Derby Day clash against Leicester, with Emmanuel Iyogun, Curtis Langdon, Ed Prowse, Tom Pearson – who makes his first league appearance of the season – and Henry Pollock the other names coming into the forward pack.

Three more changes come for Saints in the backs, starting with Fin Smith, the PREM’s leading points scorer. He joins fellow British & Irish Lion Alex Mitchell – who scored one of Saints’ 11 tries in their last PREM outing against Bath – in the half-back berths. Behind Mitchell and Smith, Fraser Dingwall comes back into the starting XV to captain Northampton.

Saints are without a victory in Leicester since January 2023, when a single point decided the 18-19 result. Since then, the last five meetings between the sides have been won by the hosts on the day – with Saints last taking home the bragging rights when a Tom Litchfield hat-trick helped Northampton to a 45-31 win on home soil in last season’s PREM play-off.

Northampton team vs Leicester: 

15 James Pater
14 Tommy Freeman
13 Rory Hutchinson
12 Fraser Dingwall (c)
11 George Hendy
10 Fin Smith
9 Alex Mitchell

1 Emmanuel Iyogun
2 Curtis Langdon
3 Cleopas Kundiona
4 Alex Coles – 150th Saints appearance
5 Ed Prowse
6 Josh Kemeny
7 Tom Pearson
8 Henry Pollock

Replacements:
16 Robbie Smith
17 Danilo Fischetti
18 Ion Neculai
19 JJ Van Der Mescht
20 Tom Lockett
21 Callum Chick
22 Archie McParland
23 Ollie Sleightholme