Injuries have thwarted Northampton Saints from putting out their strongest possible side for tomorrow night’s Travis Perkins Club v Country Challenge against Argentina. The game was announced in November with the hope that the injury list would have returned to normal, especially after a week off after the Bristol game. In fact, Daniel Browne and Mark Easter picked up new injuries in that game and are likely to be out for four to six weeks each with a fractured hand and ankle injury respectively. Carlos Spencer also suffered a calf strain.
As well as these three, a further 14 players are still receiving constant physiotherapy treatment, and four others – Robbie Kydd, Sean Lamont, David Quinlan and Dylan Hartley – currently on or recovering from international duty or training.
Tomorrow night’s game (KO 8pm) was also hoped to be the date on which club captain Bruce Reihana would make his return to the side but the medical team did not feel he is quite ready and are aiming for Monday night’s Wanderers’ game against Henley instead – kicking off at 7.30pm at Dry Leas.
Head coach Paul Grayson said: “When this fixture was announced we were all really excited about it as we expected our initial injury problems would be largely behind us. Unfortunately, that is not the case and we have had several players carrying injuries through the last few games for us. They need this extra week to try to recover fully for the rest of the season.
“That said there are plenty of players who are desperate to fill their boots and prove their worth to me, the rest of the coaching team and our home supporters. We welcome back Stephen Myler, Luke Myring and Mark Hopley from injury and are trialling two players in prop John Brooks and hooker Roger Ripol. This is also a capped game for us, so there will be some players making their Saints’ debuts tomorrow night and pulling on the black, green and gold jersey for the first time.”
Saints’ chief executive Allan Robson said: “We completely sympathise with our supporters who are disappointed not to see some of their favourite players among the team announced yesterday. The entire club was excited at the prospect of playing the sixth ranked nation at Franklin’s Gardens but circumstances have conspired to leave us with fewer players than we could ever have expected to have.
“But we must honour our commitment to Argentina who are using this game as part of their warm-up for the Rugby World Cup. We also hope to soothe some of the disappointment felt by some of our supporters by offering everyone who has bought a ticket for this game a substantial discount on tickets for an international game which will be staged at Franklin’s Gardens in May. We are unable to reveal any more details at present but should be able to make an announcement within the next week or so and I’m sure the news will be well received as it will be an exciting game for our supporters to enjoy.”
Finalised Northampton Saints team
15 Rob Laird
14 VAUGHAN GOING
13 Chris Wyles
12 Seamus Mallon
11 Matthieu Bourret
10 Stephen Myler
9 Johnny Howard
1 SOANE TONGA’UIHA
2 Dan Richmond
3 John Brooks
4 Damien Browne
5 Matt Lord (capt)
6 Alex Rae
7 Ben Lewitt
8 Mark Hopley
16 MATIAS CORTESE
17 Roger Ripol
18 James Percival
19 PAUL TUPAI
20 Danny Pointon
21 Luke Myring
22 Adam Barnard
Injuries: Pat Barnard (concussion), Daniel Browne (hand) Chris Budgen (calf), Jon Clarke (ankle), Ben Cohen (shoulder), Paul Diggin (foot), Mark Easter (ankle), Darren Fox (rib), David Gerard (ill), Bruce Reihana (knee/hamstring), Mark Robinson (gluteus muscle), Christian Short (ankle), Tom Smith (wrist), Carlos Spencer (calf), Neil Starling (knee), Steve Thompson (neck) and Ian Vass (hip/hamstring).
