The Saints take on Newport-Gwent Dragons sitting top of Pool 4, but with results being compared against teams in their own pool, not against the teams that they are playing, it is important for the travellers to maintain their 100 percent record in their hunt for the semi-finals.
With nearly 20 players unavailable due to either injury or international call-up the Saints coaches have made a number of changes to the match squad which beat Castres last Friday night.
James Wilson returns for the first time since early December, with Ben Nutley another returnee from medium-term injury. Dom Waldouck and Tom Stephenson renew their partnership in the centres, while GJ Van Velze, Teimana Harrison, Ross McMillan, Rob Verbakel, Matt Williams and Alex Day all come back into the match squad.
There are two potential debutants on the bench; England Under-20 loosehead prop Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi and tighthead prop Adam Parkins, who has been a regular with Moseley in the Championship this season.
Saturday’s game is being shown live on Sky Sports 1, and you can hear the thoughts of director of rugby Jim Mallinder, fly half Glenn Dickson and prop Ethan Waller in the official Saints podcast, available to stream or download on any device for free by CLICKING HERE.
And supporters can follow the action as it happens wherever they are with the text commentary at www.saintslive.co.uk
NORTHAMPTON SAINTS TEAM TO PLAY NEWPORT-GWENT DRAGONS
LV= Cup Round 3
Rodney Parade
Saturday, January 25th, 2014
Kick off 2:30pm
15 James WILSON
14 Ken PISI
13 Tom STEPHENSON
12 Dom WALDOUCK
11 Fa’atoina AUTAGAVAIA
10 Glenn DICKSON
9 Kahn FOTUALI’I
1 Ethan WALLER
2 Mike HAYWOOD
3 Gareth DENMAN
4 Rob VERBAKEL
5 Christian DAY
6 Teimana HARRISON
7 Phil DOWSON (capt)
8 GJ VAN VELZE
Replacements
16 Ross MCMILLAN
17 Danny HOBBS-AWOYEMI
18 Adam PARKINS
19 Ben NUTLEY
20 Matt WILLIAMS
21 Alex DAY
22 Sam OLVER
23 George PISI
