\n<\/p>\n
Exeter name an unchanged starting line-up from the side that won at Benetton in their thrilling European Challenge Cup quarter-final last week.<\/p>\n
Former England forward Ethan Roots returns from a calf injury to claim a place on the replacements bench.<\/p>\n
On paper the game of the weekend sees the league leaders travel to an in-form Exeter side who are desperate to return to the play-offs for the first time since 2021.<\/p>\n
Saints – who drew 33-33 with Exeter when the sides faced each other on the opening weekend of the season – make eight changes from the XV that lost at Bath in the Champions Cup.<\/p>\n
England players Henry Pollock and Tommy Freeman drop to the bench while Rory Hutchinson is rested.<\/p>\n
Alex Mitchell, Fraser Dingwall and George Hendy return to Northampton’s backs as winger Freeman, centre Hutchinson and Archie McParland make way.<\/p>\n
There are two changes in the front row as loosehead Emmanuel Iyogun and hooker Craig Wright come in while lock Tom Lockett starts, as do flanker Sam Graham and number eight Callum Chick, who replaces Pollock.<\/p>\n
Exeter: <\/b>Woodburn; Feyi-Waboso, Slade, Rigg, Ridl; Skinner, Varney; Sio, Yeandle, Roots, Jenkins (capt), Zambonin, Hooper, Vintcent, Fisilau.<\/p>\n
Replacements:<\/b> Dweba, Burger, Tchumbadze, Tuima, Roots, Cairns, Haydon-Wood, Brown-Bampoe<\/p>\n
Northampton: <\/b>Furbank (capt); Hendy, Litchfieldm, Dingwall, Sleightholme; F Smith, Mitchell; Iyogun, Wright, Kundiona, Prowse, Lockett, Kemeny, Graham, Chick<\/p>\n
Replacements:<\/b> R Smith, West, Millar Mills, Van Der Mescht, Pollock, McParland, Pater, Freeman<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Exeter name an unchanged starting line-up from the side that won at Benetton in their thrilling European Challenge Cup quarter-final last week. Former England forward Ethan Roots returns from a calf injury to claim a place on the replacements bench. On paper the game of the weekend sees the league leaders travel to an in-form<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13281,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rugby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}