Director of rugby Budge Pountney said: “Steve was going really well at six but he wants to go back to hooking however Dan (Richmond) has played extremely well for the past few games and deserves his place. If Steve comes on and makes a great fist of it, then that will be great for the team, but if Dan is going well then there is no point in making a change.

“Selborne has played a lot at No 8 – he played a lot there in France and he did well when he came on at eight last week. It gives us the chance to put Sam and Foxy together and Damien and David together. It’s nice to try out different combinations.”

Saints and Irish will play in front of a sell-out crowd on Saturday – at 13,000, the biggest crowd at Franklin’s Gardens in modern times. Its full capacity of 13,600 will be realised when the boxes and business club are opened for the London Wasps game on November 12, for which 11,000 tickets have already been sold.

Pountney added: “London Irish are a very good side. We have been beaten by them at home for the last three years. They have no fear of this place.

“They were unlucky against Saracens and will come here looking to play rugby with some of their great ball carriers in Murphy, Magne and Casey. It will be open and fast rugby and we are looking forward to playing in front of a full house of our fans.”

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 DAVID GERARD
5 Damien Browne
6 SAM HARDING
7 Darren Fox
8 SELBORNE BOOME

16 STEVE THOMPSON
17 Brett Sturgess
18 Matt Lord
19 Mark Soden
20 Johnny Howard
21 Rhodri Davies
22 John Rudd