Big guns back for Saints’ Euro bid

NORTHAMPTON boss Jim Mallinder is hoping to have big guns George North, Louis Piccamoles and Courtney Lawes fit for Saturday’s winner-takes-all home clash with Quins as they chase qualification for next season’s European Champions Cup.

Wales winger North and France No.8 Picamoles were both badly missed as Northampton suffered a six-try blitz at Exeter while England star Lawes failed to return from a 20thminute knock after failing a head injury assessment.

“Courtney, I think is OK,” said Mallinder. “He went down on his shoulder and neck so he’s sore. He did fail his head assessment so we’ll have to look after him. So as long as he passes all his assessments, fingers crossed he’ll be fine.”

TEAMS

EXETER: Turner 8; Nowell 9, Whitten 7, Devoto 6 (Hill 56, 7), Woodburn 8; Steenson 7 (J Simmonds 70, 6), Townsend 8 (Chudley 52, 7); Rimmer 7 (Moon 49, 6), Yeandle 7 (Cowan-Dickie 56, 7), Holmes 5 (Williams 5, 8, Rimmer 74), Dennis 6, Parling 7, Ewers 6 (Salvi 11, 8), Armand 8 (Atkins 65, 6), Horstmann 8

NORTHAMPTON: Tuala 6; K Pisi 6 (Estelles 52, 5), Burrell 5, Mallinder 6, Foden 7 (Tuitavake 68, 5); Hanrahan 7, Groom 6 (Dickson 59, 6); Waller 6 (Ma’afu 56, 6), Hartley 5 (Haywood 59, 6), Brookes 6 (Denman 56, 6), Day 6 (Ratuniyarawa 58, 5), Ribbans 7, Lawes 6 (Dickinson 20, 7), Gibson 6, Harrison 7

REFEREE: JP Doyle

ATTENDANCE: 12,284

Star man

Jack Nowell – Exeter

Mallinder admitted: “We were well beaten today. We didn’t have that physicality to break down their defence and there were a couple of soft tries.”

Victory at Gloucester on Saturday will secure Exeter a home semi-final play-off and coach Ali Hepher, who saw his side score six tries but pass up several more, said: “We are going to need to be a bit more clinical in the coming weeks.”