Northampton Saints Under-18s head coach Charlie Reed has selected his first team of the 2024/25 season, as the boys in Black, Green and Gold travel to Sale Sharks this weekend to get their Premiership Rugby U18s Academy League campaign started.
Saints topped the Northern Conference last term, winning five of their six regular season clashes to reach their third Final in as many seasons.
There Northampton’s youngsters were narrowly beaten by Bath Rugby, falling 34-33 at Kingston Park in a prequel to the Gallagher Premiership Final later that season.
And Saints will hope to go one better in 2024/25, kicking their campaign off with a trip north to CorpAcq Stadium on Sunday (5 January, kick-off: 1pm).
Centre Edoardo Todaro is the only remaining face from the team Northampton started in last season’s Final, as the Italian Under-20s star travels to Sale in a Saints side captained by England Under-18s lock Archie Appleby for the first time.
Ahead of the season opener, head coach Reed said: “It’s going to be gritty. The weather forecast doesn’t look amazing, so you know it’ll be a good test to see what the lads are made of.
“We haven’t won up there for a while. Sale are always a physical side and it is always hard to travel up north and come away with something. I know the boys are really looking forward to the challenge.”
This weekend’s clash starts a series of three back-to-back matches for Saints’ youngsters, with a second trip north to Newcastle Falcons in two weeks’ time (Saturday 18 January) preceding Saints’ opening home match against Yorkshire Rugby Academy (Saturday 11 January).
SALE SHARKS U18s vs NORTHAMPTON SAINTS U18s
Premiership Rugby U18 Academy League, Round 1
Sunday 5 January, 2025
Kick-off: 1pm
15 James Pater
14 Preston MacFarlane
13 Edoardo Todaro
12 Freddie St John
11 Ernie Jackson
10 Hugh Shields
9 Harry Evans
1 Fergus Cherrington
2 Zack Garrett
3 Aiden Reid
4 Jack Lawrence
5 Archie Appleby (c)
6 Jack Lewis
7 Harry Price
8 Siep Walta
Replacements:
16 Dylan Line
17 Matt Browne
18 Eric Cantillon
19 Mark Alvarez
20 James Hudson
21 Ben Currie
22 Lockie Lee
23 Sonny Goode
