Director of rugby Jim Mallinder says that the Northampton Saints players have not got away from the basics in training this week. The Saints have lost four successive games for the first time in Mallinder’s tenure in charge, which started in the summer of 2007. But the Saints boss says that there has been no panic in trying to get back to the form that took the team into the Aviva Premiership Rugby top four in the first half of the season, just a lot of hard work from the players and coaches alike.

“We’ve swapped things around a bit this week, but not got away from the basics that have seen us win games in the last three-and-a-half years,” he said. “We played some good rugby in patches in the first half last week. Even though we made some mistakes we battled our way to a 9-3 lead at half-time and were in a good position, although some unfortunate mistakes in the second half saw us concede points.

“You’ve got to look to do your best in every game. Leeds won last week and have some momentum. It’s a massive game for both clubs.”

You can watch the full interview with Jim Mallinder right now on www.PremiershipRugby.tv, where you will also be able to see exclusive delayed coverage of the full 80 minutes from Headingley on Saturday evening.

Online match commentary is also available via www.PremiershipRugby.tv while the Saints’ official Facebook page will have the usual exclusive match blog. The club’s Twitter feed will also publish score updates every 10 minutes.

NORTHAMPTON SAINTS TEAM TO PLAY LEEDS CARNEGIE
Aviva Premiership Rugby Round 10 (rescheduled)
Headingley Carnegie
Saturday, March 12th, 2011
Kick off 3:00pm
15 Shane Geraghty
14 Bruce Reihana
13 Jon Clarke
12 James Downey
11 Paul Diggin
10 Stephen Myler
9 Lee Dickson
1 Soane Tonga’uiha
2 Brett Sharman
3 Brian Mujati
4 Courtney Lawes
5 Christian Day
6 Calum Clark
7 Phil Dowson (capt)
8 Roger Wilson

Replacements
16 Andy Long
17 Alex Waller
18 Tom Mercey
19 Mark Sorenson
20 Mark Easter
21 Stuart Commins
22 Matt Cornwell
23 Greig Tonks