Academy-product Brett Sturgess has come in to take Budgen’s place on the bench and new signing lock David Gerard has come in for Matt Lord on the bench, who is being rested.

Director of rugby Budge Pountney said: “Newport-Gwent Dragons are a very good side as their defeat of Leicester last week showed. They are enthusiastic in attack and aggressive in defence. They have game-breakers in Morgan, Sweeney and Owen and we have got to make sure we turn up in to the right frame of mind and with the right attitude on Saturday.

“We are happy with the performance from last week and we are happy with the way things are going. It has taken time for the squad to gel together and we are nowhere near where we should be in terms of our potential.

“For us, we have not tackled the Powergen Cup as a separate competition – it’s another game in the ladder. We have to just view Saturday as the next game but it is a massive game for us and we will look to perform as well as we can.”

Saturday will see the upper tier of the South Stand in use for the first time creating a new capacity of 13,600. Tickets are still available for this game, which is included in the Saints’ season ticket package.

Bruce Reihana, who still retains the captain’s armband this week, said: “The players were very confident after the Worcester game. We knew we could do it all along; it was just about getting the belief among the players.

“We had a lot of changes at the start of the season but now it’s slowly coming together.”

Caerfyrddin-born Rhodri Davies will come up against a fair few old friends if he comes off the bench on Saturday.

The centre, who has played in 14 games already this season, for the Saints and the Wanderers, said: “It’s a very exciting weekend coming up for me. I will be playing against a few old friends of mine, but I know where my priorities lie. There will be no split loyalties.

“I have been honoured to be given the chance to represent Saints on the bench and to actually get on the pitch is an even greater honour.”

Welsh-speaking Davies, aged 22, added: “The Welsh teams seem to be taking this competition very seriously and a few English teams got a wake-up call last week. It looks like a very exciting tournament.”

Northampton Saints

15 BRUCE REIHANA (capt)
14 SEAN LAMONT
13 Jon Clarke
12 DAVID QUINLAN
11 BEN COHEN
10 CARLOS SPENCER
9 MARK ROBINSON
1 TOM SMITH
2 Dan Richmond
3 Chris Budgen
4 SELBORNE BOOME
5 Damien Browne
6 STEVE THOMPSON
7 Darren Fox
8 Mark Soden

16 Dylan Hartley
17 Brett Sturgess
18 DAVID GERARD
19 SAM HARDING
20 Johnny Howard
21 Rhodri Davies
22 Seamus Mallon