45pm, coverage from 7pm on BT Sport 1Premiership player of the week in round 23 Alex Mitchell starts at scrum-half for Northampton, which is the least surprising selection across both teams. The most eyebrow-raising is Courtney Lawes at blindside. The flanker has supposedly made a recovery from his dislocated thumb and being described as “stitched up like Frankenstein’s monster” earlier this week to play against Harlequins on Friday night. George Furbank moves to full back while James Grayson takes the reins at fly-half in the absence of Dan Biggar due to suspension. Harlequins will be fielding a side unchanged from their momentum-building 26-20 win over table-topping Leicester Tigers, having enjoyed a preview screening of their new Amazon Prime documentary of their title-winning last season at Brixton Ritzy earlier this week, titled “Prep to Win”. Saints will be a strong test of that mantra, having won their last two matches at the Gardens and on a four-game unbeaten league run, while the visitors to Franklin’s Gardens boast a current streak of six on the bounce.
Here’s all you need to know about this weekend’s six matches. How to watch Live stream: BT games can be stream on the BT Sport app or website for existing TV subscribers, or pay £25 for a monthly pass; for PRTV games, you can watch all three games for £6. 99 or by individual matches for £4. 99Highlights: Sunday 27 March, 11. 15pm, ITV Northampton Saints vs HarlequinsFriday 29 April, 7.
Leicester vs Bristol BearsSaturday 30 April, 3pmThe Tigers will seek to redress the balance of late comebacks after Andre Esterhuizen’s 74th minute try subjected them to a 26-20 loss at the Stoop last weekend for only their fourth defeat of the season. After Bristol Bears pinched the win against Gloucester last weekend they’ll be wary of late scores and hopeful of inflicting some karma themselves at Welford Road, where they have not lost in the league this season.
“If you go into games and go ‘this is do or die’ every single time, it’s going to be mentally draining – so we don’t look at it that way. “There’s confidence that we’re in the driving seat now, but we recognise that we’ve got three very tough games coming up. “We can come away with three wins, but we need to go and put in a put in a nine-out-of-10 performance to come up with a victory [tonight]. ” Furbank (with Dan Biggar, below) plays the majority of his rugby at full back, but was given the No 10 jersey last weekend in Saints’ 36-31 victory over at Bath after Biggar was suspended for a dangerous tackle on Gloucester centre Chris Harris. The Wales fly-half has been passing on nuggets of advice to his English team-mate.
And we’re gonna have to come out on top of that, if we want to get a win. “Quins is a game where you have to be concentrating for 80 minutes because you switch off for one minute and they’ll take a quick tap or take a quick throw, Marcus or [Alex] Dombrandt will pull something out the bag – so it’s a game of concentration. ” Sale Sharks vs Newcastle FalconsFriday 29 April, 7. 45pmNewcastle and Sale are both slightly in no man’s land. Sale are only seven points off fourth place and a semi-final but are in heavy traffic, with four other teams between them and Northampton who are currently in the driving seat.
Newcastle are some 24 points off Sale’s pace, with no danger of relegation this season and only Challenge Cup rugby spot to play for. To achieve this they need only to not finish bottom of the table, where Bath sit three points below and with Worcester between them. There’s a reason this one is not on TV and you would slightly expect Sale to score a simple victory here despite Falcons director of rugby Dean Richards’ insistence: “We don’t want to finish bottom of the league, and that’s motivation in itself to win the last three games. ”Argentina centre Matias Orlando returns for Newcastle, while Ben and Tom Curry are back for the Sharks with South African bulldozer RJ van Rensburg.
His countryman Faf de Klerk will start as England scrum-half Raffi Quirke has sustained a long-term injury this week. More from Rugby UnionGloucester vs BathSaturday 30 April, 3pm, coverage from 2. 30pm on BT Sport 2Gloucester sit sixth and can make a concerted push for a top-four spot in this West Country derby at Kingsholm over bottom of the table Bath. They should feel relatively confident of a victory in front of the Shed should they turn up with the right mentality – Bath have only gained one of their four victories away from home this season – they just need to shake off Toby Fricker’s sickening late try at Ashton Gate last weekend. Widespread reports that Anthony Watson will be leaving the visitors for Leicester Tigers at the end of the season also adds another level of intrigue to the clash.
Northampton, Exeter and Gloucester battle for fourth in round 24 of the Gallagher PremiershipThe race for the Gallagher Premiership semi-final spots is heating up, with six teams within seven points of each other from fourth to ninth in the table. Fans of sides up and down the country will be eyeing up permutations and probabilities of points and wins in the final three rounds. Round 24 of 26 brings some exciting clashes in the league with wider ramifications for the top four and European rugby.
Saracens FC - Bristol Bears: Live Stream & on TV today