Saints will be ‘fully loaded’ for Gardens clash
» GEORGE Skivington expects Premiership league-leaders Northampton Saints to be ‘fullly loaded’ and emotionally up for Saturday’s game at Franklin’s Gardens after their narrow defeat in the Champions Cup semi-final.
Saints pushed Leinster close at Croke Park on Saturday, but were beaten 20-17 by the Irish giants.
Phil Dowson’s side sit top of the Premiership standings, with Gloucester stuck in ninth, unable to move up or down, and Skivington is putting all his eggs in the Challenge Cup basket having seen his side book their place in the final against the Sharks at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
But they could prove to be spoilers for Northampton - and Skivington said: “It’s going to be pretty fearsome isn’t it? They’ve had a great season, I think what they’ve done this year is brilliant. Their youth system over the last seven years has really come into fruition now where they’ve got this crop of young talent who have come through their system and they’re playing really good rugby.
“For them to finish in the top two to get that home semi-final, after having a great season, they need to beat us on the weekend. They have got a really tough last game [away at Bath] and they’ll obviously be targeting beating us at their place. So I expect them to be fully loaded.’
“I don’t know how they will deal with their week, but I think they’ll probably have a few days to get over that game and then be ready for us, but you know they’re a well-oiled machine. I think there’s no doubt they’re gonna be very, very good.
“We will give people opportunities over the next couple of weeks so I’m sure we go into this heavily underdogs again but I’m quite excited, it’s a great place to go and play rugby, they are the form team in England and I think they probably will win the league.
“It is a big challenge, they’ll be emotionally fired up for it because they need this one. They’ve had such a good year. But we’ll try and rip it. We’ve got a few ideas. We’ll try and impose ourselves on the game and see if we can get a bit of traction and see what we can do.”