Quinlan has been advised that he has not done any lasting damage to the area and has been passed fit for tomorrow’s sell-out GUINNESS PREMIERSHIP game against London Wasps. He will pair up with Robbie Kydd to form Saints’ centre partnership.

French U21s player Matthieu Bourret also returns to the starting line-up after two weeks out of action during the Heineken Cup pool games for which he is not registered. Bourret scored his debut try in the first minute of his last game, which was against Leicester Tigers in the EDF Energy Cup.

Changes in the pack see Tom Smith returning to the front row, David Gerard starting alongside fellow lock Christian Short and skipper Darren Fox taking up his place in the back row. The bench includes Vaughan Going and Seamus Mallon, who both also had an enforced rest during the last fortnight.

Saints will be hoping to put behind them their poor league performances in November and start building on their recent run of wins in December.

Head coach Paul Grayson said: “November has not been kind to us during the last couple of seasons. We knew it was going to be tough particularly when you lose players like Ben Cohen and Sean Lamont, and then Bruce (Reihana) and Clarkey (Jon Clarke) as well. We were a little bit fragile behind the scrum.

“But the Premiership is a squad event. Ours been tested to the maximum this season. It’s taught us that everybody in the squad has to be capable of doing the job.”

Tomorrow night’s game kicks off at 8pm and is being shown live in Sky Sports.

Northampton Saints

15 Paul Diggin
14 SEAN LAMONT
13 Robbie Kydd
12 DAVID QUINLAN
11 Matthieu Bourret
10 CARLOS SPENCER
9 MARK ROBINSON
1 TOM SMITH
2 STEVE THOMPSON
3 Pat Barnard
4 DAVID GERARD
5 Christian Short
6 PAUL TUPAI
7 Darren Fox
8 Daniel Browne

16 Dylan Hartley
17 Chris Budgen
18 Matt Lord
19 Mark Easter
20 Ian Vass
21 VAUGHAN GOING
22 Seamus Mallon