Jim Mallinder - Northampton Saints Director of Rugby

Director of rugby Jim Mallinder says that the Northampton Saints team is looking forward to taking on Leinster at the Millennium Stadium in tomorrow’s Heineken Cup final.

The Saints travelled to Cardiff in December during the pool stages, but tomorrow they will head back over the Severn Bridge for the Heineken Cup showpiece occasion to face a Leinster team that lifted the trophy just two years ago. And the Saints boss said today that his players are relishing taking on this challenge.

“Over the last few years Leinster have developed a strong tradition of European success,” Mallinder commented. “They won the Heineken Cup in 2009 and were semi-finalists last season, and their squad has several world class players that any coach in the world would want in their team.

“The fact that they are now competing in these occasions regularly shows the value in keeping a squad together for a number of years, something we are aiming to do here at the Saints.

“We certainly have plenty of respect for their achievements and for the players and coaches. But we are not going to Cardiff just to make up the numbers. For us, tomorrow’s game is the last of a long season and represents the last opportunity for us to bring home some silverware.

“This is a massive motivation. Not a lot of players get the chance to play in a Heineken Cup final, and everyone in the matchday 23 is determined to get a positive result at the Millennium Stadium tomorrow.”

There are many ways for supporters to follow the action from Cardiff. The Saints’ official Facebook page will have the usual match blog, with score updates posted every 10 minutes on the club’s Twitter feed.

BBC Radio Northampton will be covering the game live, as will Sky Sports, and you can watch the game with your fellow fans in the Rodber Suite at Franklin’s Gardens. Doors open at 3:30pm.

NORTHAMPTON SAINTS TEAM TO PLAY LEINSTER

Heineken Cup final

Millennium Stadium, Cardiff

Saturday, May 21st, 2011

Kick off 5:00pm

15 Ben Foden

14 Chris Ashton

13 Jon Clarke

12 James Downey

11 Paul Diggin

10 Stephen Myler

9 Lee Dickson

1 Soane Tonga’uiha

2 Dylan Hartley (capt)

3 Brian Mujati

4 Courtney Lawes

5 Christian Day

6 Calum Clark

7 Phil Dowson

8 Roger Wilson

Replacements

16 Brett Sharman

17 Alex Waller

18 Tom Mercey

19 Mark Sorenson

20 Mark Easter

21 Stuart Commins

22 Shane Geraghty

23 Joe Ansbro