Northampton v Saracens: Score and latest Premiership updates
17 May 2025 2:06pm
2:05PM
Teams
Northampton Saints: 15. James Ramm, 14. Tommy Freeman, 13. Fraser Dingwall (c), 12. Rory Hutchinson, 11. Tom Litchfield, 10. Fin Smith, 9. Alex Mitchell, 1. Emmanuel Iyogun, 2. Curtis Langdon, 3. Trevor Davison, 4. Temo Mayanavanua, 5. Tom Lockett, 6. Alex Coles, 7. Josh Kemeny, 8. Henry Pollock.
Replacements: 16. Craig Wright, 17. Tarek Haffar, 18. Elliot Millar Mills, 19. Ed Prowse, 20. Angus Scott-Young, 21. Jonny Weimann, 22. Jake Garside, 23. Tom Seabrook.
Saracens: 15. Alex Goode, 14. Tobias Elliott, 13. Elliot Daly, 12. Nick Tompkins, 11. Rotimi Segun, 10. Fergus Burke, 9. Ivan van Zyl, 1. Eroni Mawi, 2. Jamie George, 3. Marco Riccioni, 4. Maro Itoje (c), 5. Nick Isiekwe, 6. Juan Martin Gonzalez, 7. Ben Earl, 8. Tom Willis.
Replacements: 16. Theo Dan, 17. Phil Brantingham, 18. Alec Clarey, 19. Hugh Tizard, 20. Theo McFarland, 21. Andy Onyeama-Christie, 22. Charlie Bracken, 23. Angus Hall.
1:59PM
Premiership season coming towards its conclusion
The Gallagher Premiership regular season is coming towards its conclusion and we are at Franklin's Gardens as last season's champions Northampton welcome Saracens for their final home game of the season. For the home side, the focus of their attention is most definitely on the Champions Cup final next weekend after a terrific victory over Leinster two weeks ago in Dublin. Going into this penultimate round of the Premiership, Northampton, who have lost only two home matches in the Premiership since October 2023, sit in eighth and cannot make the play-offs. A much-changed Northampton lost 42-14 at Exeter last weekend, which ended a five-game winning run across all competitions. Despite the Champions Cup being the main focus, Northampton's director of rugby Phil Dowson still has stressed the importance of their final home game of the season.
'The connection in the group is so strong that we think occasions like playing at home for the last time are important. We think the last home game of the season for the fans is important,' Dowson told BBC Radio Northampton. 'We think that momentum and getting back to winning ways after a disappointing result is important and these are all motivational elements - all things we want to put out on the pitch on Saturday.
'They [Saracens] are gunning for the top four, [have] a tonne of very strong players, Lions. Loads and loads of quality across the board. I am sure they are frustrated like we are with the consistency of their performance but when they are on, they are an absolute handful. It will be a really good challenge and it is something we want to get our teeth into.'
Saracens currently sit sixth and, after wins for Sale and Gloucester last night, know victory today is vital to their play-off hopes. They start the day four points off Bristol in fourth, knowing any type of win would elevate them into the top four going into the final round. They thrashed Newcastle 75-28 last time out and Mark McCall's side have lost just once in their last four. McCall knows the challenge facing his side this afternoon and wants to see his side show more consistency.
'It will be the first time their home fans will be able to see their team since that famous win against Leinster, which is an incredible achievement by them, so you know it is going to be a full house,' McCall said. 'You can imagine after the team they selected against Exeter their going to go as strong as they can against us, and their strongest team is a very good team.
'If you look at our season as a whole, we have won nine Premiership games and lost seven which indicates an inconsistent team. The way I look at it, we have played at a very high level at times but the gap between our best performance and worst performance is too big. That is the challenge, to become a really consistent team and narrow that gap. We have had 16 games before this to learn from, we know what our best is and will need to recreate that on Saturday [today].'
Northampton have won their last four home matches against Saracens but in the reverse fixture just before Christmas, Saracens were the victors 39-24 at the StoneX Stadium. Kick-off at Franklin's Gardens is at 3.05pm.
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