Tough on French soil: Castres host Saints
Related links
Teams
Also see
Ryan Lamb returns to the Northampton Saints fly-half berth for Friday's Heineken Cup clash against Castres at Stade Ernest Wallon in Toulouse.
There are two changes to the starting XV that got Saints' campaign off to a winning start last Sunday against Glasgow as Stephen Myler shifts from 10 to full-back in the place of James Wilson while Lamb takes over the pivot role.
There is one change to the bench with the addition of Scott Armstrong to the replacements.
With just a five-day turnaround between the Round 1 and 2 clashes Saints director of rugby Jim Mallinder says that the English side has a tough challenge ahead of them.
"The tournament scheduling has not been particularly kind to us in the first two rounds, and having just five days to prepare for a tough match is certainly not ideal," he said.
"Having played Castres in both of our last two Heineken Cup campaigns we have an idea of what to expect - some big runners, strong set piece work and accurate goal kicking.
"We also know how difficult Castres are to play at home. They have not lost in front of their own fans this season, and even though the game is in Toulouse they will still be very difficult to beat.
"However we are going to France in good spirits after showing our character last Sunday to fight back and secure a bonus point win, and we will be doing everything we can to get the positive result we want."
Northampton Saints will be looking for revenge after suffering a 41-22 away defeat to Castres in last season's Pool stages which ended the 2011 finalist's hopes of reaching the knock-out stages.
Castres may have struggled against Ulster in Belfast last week but the French side have won 17 of their 26 European games on home soil.
But the hosts have won just one of their last 10 Heineken Cup matches - against Saints.
Meanwhile, Castres have been struck by a triple injury blow as full-back Brice Dulin (thigh), centre Max Evans (ribs) and loose forward Yannick Caballero (ankle) are all unavailable.
The teams:
Castres Olympique: 15 Romain Teulet, 14 Romain Martial, 13 Paul Bonnefond, 12 Seremaia Bai, 11 Marcel Garvey, 10 Rémi Tales, 9 Rory Kockott, 8 Antonie Claassen, 7 Piula Faasalele, 6 Jannie Bornman, 5 Christophe Samson, 4 Iosefa Tekori, 3 Anton Peikrishvili, 2 Brice Mach, 1 Mihaïta Lazar.
Replacements: 16 Marc-Antoine Rallier, 17 Yannick Forestier, 18 Michaël Coetzee, 19 Matthias Rolland, 20 Daniel Kirkpatrick, 21 Pedrie Wannenburg, 22 Romain Cabannes, 23 Marc Andreu.
Northampton Saints: 15 Stephen Myler, 14 Ken Pisi, 13 George Pisi, 12 Dom Waldouck, 11 Vasily Artemyev, 10 Ryan Lamb, 9 Lee Dickson, 8 Rhys Oakley, 7 Tom Wood, 6 Phil Dowson, 5 Courtney Lawes, 4 Samu Manoa, 3 Brian Mujati, 2 Dylan Hartley (c), 1 Soane Tonga'uiha.
Replacements: 16 Mike Haywood, 17 Alex Waller, 18 Paul Doran Jones, 19 Mark Sorenson, 20 GJ Van Velze, 21 Martin Roberts, 22 Tom May, 23 Scott Armstrong.
Date: Friday, October 19
Venue: Stade Ernest Wallon, Toulouse
Kick-off: 21.00 local (20.00 BST / 19.00 GMT)
Referee: Alain Rolland
Comments
Armchairexpert says...
What has happened to James Wilson? Looked like an outstanding replacement for Foden
And why no Burrell at least as a bench option?
Posted 11:39 19th October 2012
NHsaints says...
I'm not looking forwards to this, Castres are really tough at home...we found that out the hard way last season. Interesting choice though from Mallinder to put Myler to Fullback...he's definitely got the skillset to play 15, we just won't be counter attacking as often as if we had Foden at Fullback...that might be a good thing.
Posted 16:26 18th October 2012
sirtidychris says...
Boom....yes Courtney Lawes back in his rightful position, this man is an international lock star in the making lets play him there every week, sure he can do a good job at 6, he would probably do a good job at 8 and on the wing too ! but he's our locking future stop moving him around !!
P.s awesome to see Tom Wood getting a run of games together bring on the AI's !!
Posted 15:31 18th October 2012
melkdave says...
Have to agree with you @Rosbif Castres are a completly different side when at home,more focused and show a hell of alot more intensity.Also i see they are starting with those players you mentioned missing last week ,except for the injured Dulien.Going to be a very hard game for Saints to get anything out of imo,as Ulster will also find out when they goto France.
Posted 14:56 18th October 2012
Rosbif says...
.... a post I made after the Ulster game...
"check out the Castres team from last week's game at home vs Clermont (which Castres won btw). I counted no more than 6 of those players in yesterday's run-on team. Guys like top try-scorers Dulin and Martial, first choice half backs Kockott and Tales, and their biggest ball carriers Tekori and Samson. No wonder they looked clueless at the end. Dare one suggest their hearts were not in it? Or speculate, even further, that it was borderline deliberate?"
Oh well. other than Dulin, who got the national call-up this week and got himself injured in training, let's see how the others go at home.....
I'm predicting a more committed approach than last weekend vs Ulster!!
Posted 14:08 18th October 2012