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Three late changes for Northampton Saints ahead of Tigers kick-off

(Photo by Ashley Western/PA Images via Getty Images)

Northampton Saints have been forced into three late changes ahead of their derby match with Leicester Tigers.

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Teimana Harrison (hamstring), Ehren Painter and Ollie Sleightholme (both back) have been ruled out of Northampton Saints’ Gallagher Premiership clash against Leicester Tigers this afternoon.

Tommy Freeman comes onto the wing to replace Sleightholme, while Shaun Adendorff pulls on the No.8 jersey in place of Harrison and Paul Hill packs down at tighthead – with the trio all moving from the bench to the starting XV.

That leaves room for Oisín Heffernan (wearing 18), JJ Tonks (20) and Tom Collins (23) to come into the matchday squad amongst the replacements.

Northampton Saints:
15 George Furbank
14 Matt Proctor
13 Rory Hutchinson
12 Piers Francis
11 Tommy Freeman
10 Dan Biggar
9 Alex Mitchell
1 Alex Waller (co-capt)
2 Sam Matavesi
3 Paul Hill
4 David Ribbans
5 Alex Moon
6 Tom Wood
7 Lewis Ludlam (co-capt)
8 Shaun Adendorff

Replacements:
16 Mike Haywood
17 Nick Auterac
18 Oisín Heffernan
19 Alex Coles
20 JJ Tonks
21 Tom James
22 Ahsee Tuala
23 Tom Collins

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f
fl 55 minutes ago
‘Props are awesome…so why don’t they win prizes?’

“The reason most props don’t last the whole game is that they expend proportionally more effort than players outside the front row. Should they be penalised for that?”

No, they don’t last the whole game because they are less fit than players outside the front row. I’d be interested to know if you’d apply this logic to other positions; do PSDT and Itoje regularly last longer than other players in their positions because they put in less effort?

None of this is about “penalising” props, its about being realistic about their impact on a game.


“While scrums are a small part of the game in terms of time spent in them, they have disproportionate impact. Dominant scrums win games; feeble ones lose them.”

Strength at the breakdown wins games. Good kicking wins games. Good handling wins games. Strong defence wins games. Good lineouts win games. Ultimately, I think that of all these things, the scrum is probably the least important, because it demonstrably doesn’t correlate very well with winning games. I don’t think Rugbypass will allow me to link articles, but if you google “HG Rugby Crowning the Best Scrum in Club Rugby” you’ll get a pretty convincing analysis that ranks Toulouse and Bordeaux outside of the 10 best club sides in the scrum - and ranks Leinster outside of the top 30.


“Or there’s Joe Marler’s epic performance in the Bristol v Quins 2021 Premiership Semi-Final, in which he finally left the pitch 15 minutes into extra time having signed off with a try saving tackle.”

Yeah - that’s a good example actually, but it kind of disproves your point. Marler played 95 minutes, which is unheard of for a prop.


“Maybe we need a dedicated Hall of Fame with entry only for props, and voted for only by props.”

Well we have the World Rugby XV of the year. Its only been going for a few years, but in time it’ll be a pretty good record of who are perceived as best props - although the lack of interest most people have in scrums means that perception of who the best props are doesn’t always match reality (e.g. Tadgh Furlong was great in 2018 - but was he really the best tighthead in the world in 2021, 2022, & 2023?).

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