Northampton Saints and Scotland international Rory Hutchinson is eager for the men in Black, Green and Gold to put in a performance for Saints’ supporters in front of a sold-out cinch Stadium.
Phil Dowson’s side remain the only team undefeated in the Gallagher PREM heading into the final round of fixtures before the league breaks for the Quilter Nations Series.
It’s a first-versus-second clash in the league as Saints welcome Saracens to cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens for the first Friday Night Lights fixture of the season, and for centre Hutchinson, he and the squad are determined to put on a strong performance.
He said: “It’s why we all want to play here, because we get to play in front of amazing fans, at an amazing ground with so much history.
“It’s great to see that we’ve got all that support and backing from the town and the local areas.
“We just want to get the most out of the players we’ve got for now, and then obviously we go into the PREM Rugby Cup block, and then when everyone comes back, it will be a new challenge and focus for us.
“With Owen Farrell back and Maro Itoje coming back last week, Saracens are a very good outfit. They look like they’re chucking the ball around a bit more, so we’ve got to make sure we’re focused on that.”
On Tuesday afternoon, Hutchinson was named in the Scotland squad for the 2025 Quilter Nations Series off the back of a strong start to his PREM season, including a player-of-the-match performance in Round 2 against Gloucester.
“It’s great to be back involved with the Scotland squad,” the 29-year-old continued. “It was nice to get some rugby on the summer tour, so I’m just trying to continue it.
“I don’t think about a call-up too much because you just don’t know what’s going to happen.
“I always say the past few years I’ve been here that I’ve always got to play well for Northampton to even get my foot in the door, so that’s my focus at the moment – to keep playing well for the Club, and it just shows you get rewarded for it.
“We’ve got a big game this weekend, so the focus is still on Northampton until this block is done. I’ve just been enjoying my rugby really.
“It was obviously nice to play over in New Zealand on the summer tour, and to come back for preseason and hit the ground running a bit, it’s been good.
“I feel like we’re playing some good rugby at the moment, and that’s shown from our results. Obviously, they’ve been tight, but I feel like this group is a lot more connected than maybe we were in the PREM last year. Europe was a bit of a different story.
“I feel we’ve got a really good squad. You see the names on the teamsheets and you feel like on paper we put out pretty strong squads, so it’s exciting times for us.”