Recap: Northampton Saints vs Bristol LIVE | Gallagher Premiership
Follow all the action on the RugbyPass live blog from the Gallagher Premiership match between Northampton Saints and Bristol at Franklin’s Gardens.
Keep up to date with the latest score, stats and join the conversation from anywhere in the world in our Live Match Centre (click here).
Pat Lam says his Bristol team will relish the challenge of Sunday’s Gallagher Premiership clash against fellow play-off candidates Northampton.
Bristol head to Franklin’s Gardens knowing that victory is likely to put them in fourth spot following Gloucester’s home defeat at the hands of leaders Exeter on Friday. Saints, though, are just five points behind Exeter in second, which underlines the size of Bristol’s task.
“Going to Northampton is always a massive challenge,” Bristol rugby director Lam told the club’s official website. “But it’s a game we are excited by because you are playing a team that loves to play rugby and it could potentially be a really good game for the neutral and for everybody.
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“Putting the work in and following on from what we did against Gloucester (last month), it puts us in good shape to go there. We are under no illusion as to how tough that will be, but we’re excited by it.
“We’ve had a really beneficial two weeks of recovery and hard work on the training field to ensure we are fit and firing for a big test against a well-coached side.
📢| Here's your #BristolBears line-up to travel to @SaintsRugby on Sunday. 🔥
A BIG occasion at the Gardens! 💪 pic.twitter.com/2WpCVkysXg
— Bristol Bears 🐻 (@BristolBears) February 14, 2020
“Credit to the conditioning and medical team, there is excellent availability in the squad and we are relishing this next block of Premiership fixtures, starting with Northampton.”
Bristol are boosted by the return of full-back Charles Piutau, who has not played since suffering a knee ligament injury six weeks ago. And that is Bristol’s only change of personnel from the side who beat Gloucester, with Luke Morahan reverting to wing duties.
Welcome back @alexmitchell97 🙌🏼
Mitch is back for Sunday at the Gardens, and so are @RoryJHutchinson, Moony & @FraserDingwall_.
Your Saints to play Bristol…
— Northampton Saints 😇 (@SaintsRugby) February 14, 2020
Northampton will be without fly-half talisman Dan Biggar as he continues his recovery from a head injury. The Wales star went off during last Saturday’s Guinness Six Nations defeat against Ireland in Dublin, although he is understood to be on course for next week’s Cardiff appointment with France.
James Grayson wears Saints’ number 10 shirt as rugby director Chris Boyd makes five changes from the side beaten at home by London Irish last time out.
Scotland centre Rory Hutchinson will line up in midfield alongside Matt Proctor, who starts his first match since December after recovering from a concussion, while fellow backs Tom Collins and Harry Mallinder also feature.
In the pack, lock Alex Moon returns from England duty to partner Alex Coles in the second row, and prop Alex Waller packs down alongside Mike Haywood and Owen Franks.
WATCH: The behind the scenes RugbyPass documentary on Bristol Bears
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
28 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
28 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
28 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
28 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
28 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments