Mallinder calls for Quins to be “switched on” at Saints

Posted on Sep 10, 2010 in English Rugby, Premiership

Director of rugby Jim Mallinder says that the Northampton Saints team that travels to Harlequins tomorrow will have to be switched on right from the first whistle.

The Saints opened their Aviva Premiership Rugby campaign with a win over Leicester last Sunday, and while the Saints boss was pleased with the start he said that the trip to the Twickenham Stoop represents a massive challenge for the team.

“Winning at home is always important but getting results away from home is vital if we’re going to finish at the top end of the Premiership table,” he said. “There were many aspects of last Sunday’s performance that were pleasing, especially the first five minutes.

“But we’ll have to do better against a Harlequins outfit that performed well against Wasps. Their team has an experienced backbone, especially at eight, nine and ten, and they have some exciting young talent too.”

The Saints have not won a league match at the Stoop since Mallinder took charge three years ago, even though they won the 2009 European Challenge Cup.

“I don’t know why we’ve had that record there,” Mallinder added. “Harlequins have good facilities and a good surface and you can play rugby. Two years ago we played badly and lost. Last year we played badly and lost, but we got a bonus point, so we’re actually going on an upward trend. Hopefully we can play a lot better this week, because we’ll have to if we’re going to get a win!”

You can watch interviews with Jim Mallinder and Lee Dickson previewing the trip to Harlequins on PremiershipRugby.tv, where you’ll also be able to listen to live commentary and follow all the text tracking on game day.

Saturday’s game is also being shown live on Sky Sports 1 and HD1, with coverage starting from 1pm.

NORTHAMPTON SAINTS TEAM TO PLAY HARLEQUINS
Aviva Premiership Rugby Round 2
Twickenham Stoop
Saturday, September 11th, 2010
Kick off 1:30pm
15 Ben Foden
14 Chris Ashton
13 Jon Clarke
12 James Downey
11 Bruce Reihana
10 Shane Geraghty
9 Lee Dickson
1 Soane Tonga’uiha
2 Dylan Hartley (capt)
3 Brian Mujati
4 Courtney Lawes
5 Christian Day
6 Phil Dowson
7 Tom Wood
8 Roger Wilson

Replacements
16 Brett Sharman
17 Regardt Dreyer
18 Euan Murray
19 Calum Clark
20 Mark Easter
21 Stuart Commins
22 Stephen Myler
23 Joe Ansbro

Andrew on dropped Borthwick

Posted on Jul 2, 2010 in Rugby News

Rob Andrew has saluted the leadership of Steve Borthwick and hailed the arrival of England’s new generation. On the day the England Elite Player Squads were announced, the RFU’s Elite Rugby Director told the RFU Podcast, “Steve’s done a fantastic job in a difficult period of rebuilding. “He carried himself and the England team well and it was a very tough call (to leave him out of the senior squad).”

With Borthwick recovering from injury, the door opened for the likes of Dave Attwood and Courtney Lawes to shine and Andrew added, “We’ve tried hard to create real competition and strength in depth. With so many young players coming through, all the players know they have to perform to hang on to their shirt.”

There have been 11 changes to the EPS announced in January, including the elevation of Attwood and Dan Cole and addition of Lawes, whilst Borthwick has been included in the England Saxons EPS.

England’s five-match Australasia tour included three midweek matches. “Those midweek matches were just as important – if not more so – that the Test matches because they gave that next level of player the chance to play in some very competitive games,” added Andrew.

The England Podcast can be downloaded here

England Senior EPS squad update

Posted on Nov 17, 2009 in Rugby News

The following players are returning to their clubs this afternoon from the England training camp at the Pennyhill Park Hotel.

• Steffon Armitage – (London Irish)
• George Chuter – (Leicester Tigers)
• Jordan Crane – (Leicester Tigers)
• David Flatman – (Bath Rugby)
• Ben Foden – (Northampton Saints)
• Andy Goode – (CA Brive)
• Ben Kay – (Leicester Tigers)
• Courtney Lawes – (Northampton Saints)
• Paul Sackey – (London Wasps)
• Richard Wigglesworth – (Sale Sharks)

The England test team to play New Zealand in the Investec Challenge on Saturday, November 21 (kick off 2.30pm) will be announced tomorrow via the news wires at 12.00pm.

Old Scouts prepared to do their best: RFU Podcast

Posted on Nov 6, 2009 in Rugby News

Steve Thompson and Courtney Lawes will be on parade at Twickenham on Saturday as a testament to Northampton Old Scouts.

Lawes follows Thompson and Ben Cohen as the latest to come out of the Scouts club founded in 1926 around a camp fire at Castle Ashby.

Thompson said: “A couple of the guys down at Old Scouts have said congratulations and ‘look after him’. With someone like Courtney it’s so exciting – he is so athletic and he’s only 20 – so I’m really looking forward to it.”

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RFU Podcast: England scan the stars with satellites

Posted on Sep 18, 2009 in Rugby News

England are aiming to generate a galaxy of new stars by plugging in to the satellites.

Today’s RFU podcast went behind the scenes with the Elite Rugby Department to discover the latest innovations in sports science.

RFU Head of Elite Player development Stuart Lancaster said: “We have got to raise the bar with things like GPS (Global Positioning System).

“With player tracking you get a small monitor which sits in a harness on your back and it tracks the movements you would make in a training session. So from a coaching point of view what you get is real life feedback on the intensity of a session, the distance and the speed which a player runs and it allows you to see whether they are doing too much or too little.

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