Rodber & Bayfield Dropped By Jack Rowell for Scotland Match!

On February 13th Jack Rowell dropped England duo Rodber and Bayfield for the Scotland game. This suprise decision put Rodber on the bench and left Bayfield entirely out to make way for Bristol lock Gareth Archer.Dean Richards moves in at No.8 and Ben Clarke moves to Rodber's position at No.6.It must be pretty hard on Rodber after his performance in the Welsh game but Rowell's decision to put an inexperienced lock in the team when the problem lies in the hooker (Mark Reagan) takes the proverbial! My guess is that both these positional steps are temporary, but based on Rowell's recent form - who knows ?

Saints bid £350,000 for Tiger Johnson

Recent speculation that Northampton are trying to buy the England & Leicester lock for an obscene £350,000 are now believed to have been untrue. Many newspapers claimed Northampton were in the process of luring Australian lock John Eales, Bath prop John Mallet and more recently French No.8 Benazzi, however this seems unlikely as it goes against the philosophy of developing 'home grown' players preached by the management. Still it would be interesting to see both England Second row in the same club, even if it were a little unfair on eveyone else

Fixture pile-up as Five Nations & Weather takes its toll

The Five Nations and bad weather recently have effectively stalled the Saints charge through the Courage League Division 2. This has meant that six league matches are to be played in successive saturdays. The next league game is planned for the 24th February (Moseley).See Fixture list.

Hunter Fit

Full Back Ian Hunter is ready to resume playing again, five months after contracting a virus. He had only played one League game this season before being struck down.The former British Lions and England player will join a Back division of already five full Internationals, not something normally associated with a Second Division Team. It will be interesting to see if the rather injury-prone full back draws any attention from Jack Rowell.

Matt Allen & Harvey Thorneycroft selected in England A Squad

Saints bid for European Honours next Season