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No Biggar but Lawes set for a 'reunion' with Henderson in Belfast
By Liam Heagney
Northampton have made six changes to their Champions Cup starting XV to take on Ulster on Friday with the absence of injured Lions No10 Dan Biggar and the return of his fellow 2021 tourist, England's Courtney Lawes, catching the eye. The talisman from Wales played just 45 minutes of last weekend's round one loss to Racing 92, hobbling off to be replaced by Rory Hutchinson.
With Biggar unable to shake off the injury, Northampton have chosen to hand the No10 jersey to George Furbank, last week's starting full-back. Furbank's spot at No15 will be filled by Ahsee Tuala, who will make his first start of the season.
The other Northampton changes see Ollie Sleightholme come onto the right wing for Tommy Freeman, Alex Waller is at loosehead for Nick Auterac, Mike Haywood at hooker for Sam Matavesi, Lions tourist Lawes is at blindside for Karl Wilkins while Tom Wood is the No8 in place of Juarno Augustus.
Ulster, meanwhile, have boosted their side with the return of their Lions tourist Iain Henderson, who is one of three changes to their XV following their round one win at Clermont. Prop Marty Moore and winger Craig Gilroy are the other changes for a match that will also feature newly arrived Springboks forward Duane Vermeulen at No8 following his away debut last weekend.
The prospect of Henderson going up against Lawes in the Ulster versus Northampton forwards battle has the potential to be spicy following remarks made by the Irishman about how his English rival was a Test starter on the Lions tour in South Africa. Not getting a run grated with Henderson, who singled out how Lawes was a favoured Warren Gatland pick despite his lack of pre-tour games in 2021.
“A bit of evidence of that would be Courtney Lawes, for example. Hadn’t played a lot of rugby, was injured going in, missed a lot of rugby, comes in as a bit of a surprise maybe and starts all three Tests,” claimed Henderson when interviewed in September on BBC Sport Northern Ireland’s Ulster Rugby Show. “Don’t get me wrong, Courtney is a class player and he probably deserved to be playing.
"But that would lead you to believe that he [Gatland] wasn’t picking on who was on form at that stage because Courtney had already banked his form from before. He [Gatland] told me I had trained really well, played really well and it unfortunately just didn’t work out the way I wanted it to be… at the end of the day it’s the top dog’s decision and I wasn’t there.”
ULSTER: 15. Mike Lowry; 14. Craig Gilroy, 13. James Hume, 12. Stuart McCloskey, 11. Ethan McIlroy; 10. Billy Burns, 9. John Cooney; 1. Andrew Warwick, 2. Rob Herring, 3. Marty Moore, 4. Alan O’Connor, 5. Iain Henderson (capt), 6. Marcus Rea, 7. Nick Timoney, 8. Duane Vermeulen. Reps: 16. John Andrew, 17. Jack McGrath, 18. Tom O’Toole, 19. Kieran Treadwell, 20. Sam Carter, 21. Greg Jones, 22. Nathan Doak, 23. Stewart Moore.
NORTHAMPTON: 15. Ahsee Tuala; 14. Ollie Sleightholme, 13. Matt Proctor, 12. Fraser Dingwall, 11. Courtnall Skosan; 10. George Furbank, 9. Alex Mitchell; 1. Alex Waller, 2. Mike Haywood, 3. Ehren Painter, 4. David Ribbans, 5. Api Ratuniyarawa, 6. Courtney Lawes, 7. Lewis Ludlam (capt), 8. Tom Wood. Reps: 16. James Fish, 17. Emmanuel Iyogun, 18. Conor Carey, 19. Alex Coles, 20. Juarno Augustus, 21. Tom James, 22. James Grayson, 23. Rory Hutchinson.
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Latest Comments
They also use a far more consistent scale.
Rugby pass seem to have a different scale for each player based on the authors expectations or how much he likes them.
Can't fathom how Moodie and Reece both were a 3.
Go to commentsYes for sure, thanks for sharing. I fully understand that both parties are better off, no one needs to lose, neither competition suffers, in fact both can be better as a result.
Too many true rugby fans (and analysts) don't understand that.
I wouldn't imagine there is a date aye. It was a long decline rugby in SA and Australia was going through, and was so bad it even effected NZ, caused them to argue to can a couple of teams. The nation of SA probably grew into it? I know I watch more of the NH now specifically because of the SR teams playing there. I actually had to mention to Nick Bishop (because of his stubborn perspective) the other day that I've never been a fan of Super Rugby, I don't think they chose the right way to go about professionalism back in 1995. Unfortunately, NZR was stuck between a rock and a hard place, because it had SA's and Australians that ran their unions by States, so we had to separate into "two or three" teams as a result. Our game is in the kak now because of it, they want to kill off the lifeblood of our National Provincial Championship. But now we might see a way out of it, so it's all good.
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