Shane Geraghty chats to referee Dave Pearson

Shane Geraghty is back in the Northampton No 10 shirt for their rescheduled Aviva Premiership Rugby Round 11 trip to Gloucester.

The game was originall due to take place on Boxing Day, only to be called off thanks to a frozen Kingsholm pitch. Conditions tomorrow night will be somewhat different, but the game now falls in an extremely busy period for the Saints, and director of rugby Jim Mallinder said that it provided a good opportunity for players to stake their claim for the Aviva Premiership Rugby and Heineken Cup run-in.

“We are in the middle of three tough away games but we’re heading to Gloucester determined to work hard for a positive result,” Mallinder said today. “We want a place in the Premiership play-offs, and we also know that the only way to make sure that we’re in the top four is to keep on winning.

“We’ve made a few changes to the team that played at Kingston Park, but we’re able to bring in players who have a lot of Premiership experience and who have all been working hard in training to get a place in the first team.

“We will need to perform well if we want to bring anything home. Gloucester showed plenty of character and quality in coming back to draw at Welford Road on Saturday, and Kingsholm is always a difficult place to play.”

Tomorrow night’s game is being shown live on ESPN, with coverage starting from 7:15pm. Alternatively you can follow all the action in the Saints’ Facebook match blog and get score updates via the club’s Twitter feed. BBC Radio Northampton will carry live commentary, which you can also find online via PremiershipRugby.tv.

Northampton Saints Starting XV
Aviva Premiership Rugby Round 11 (rescheduled)
Kingsholm
Tuesday, April 19th, 2011
Kick off 7:45pm

15 Bruce Reihana
14 Paul Diggin
13 Joe Ansbro
12 Greig Tonks
11 Scott Armstrong
10 Shane Geraghty
9 Stuart Commins
1 Alex Waller
2 Brett Sharman
3 Tom Mercey
4 Adam Eustace
5 Mark Sorenson
6 Calum Clark (C)
7 Tom Wood
8 Mark Easter

Replacements

16 Dylan Hartley
17 Soane Tonga’uiha
18 Brian Mujati
19 Courtney Lawes
20 Phil Dowson
21 Lee Dickson
22 Stephen Myler
23 Ben Foden