Northampton v L Irish: Teams
Northampton prop Soane Tonga'uiha will make his 100th appearance for the club against London Irish on Saturday.
Last Updated: 02/01/10 2:06pm
Northampton Saints prop Soane Tonga'uiha will make his 100th appearance for the club when he runs out against London Irish on Saturday.
The powerful Tongan is the third Saint to reach the landmark in the past few weeks, following hot on the heels of centre Jon Clarke and Northampton club captain Dylan Hartley.
Tonga'uiha joined the Saints from near-neighbours Bedford Blues in 2006 and made his debut in the opening game of that season's Guinness Premiership. Tonga'uiha has scored 10 tries in his 99 appearances to date, including two this season.
"Soane has really knuckled down in the past couple of seasons and is starting to play to his potential," Saints director of rugby Jim Mallinder told the club's official website.
"He is still relatively young for a prop and has plenty of years left in him. But he will have to play extremely well tomorrow, as will the rest of the team, against a talented London Irish outfit.
"They like to play a constructive style of rugby and score a lot of tries. They also have good kickers too, like Ryan Lamb, Chris Malone and Peter Hewat, and are able to keep the score board ticking over.
Top class
"If we are to get a positive result we will have to play with control, impose our game plan and be as clinical as we were in the second half against Worcester."
London Irish head coach Toby Booth has made two changes from the team that beat table-topping Saracens last weekend.
Kieran Roche starts at blindside flanker and Paul Hodgson comes in at scrum-half.
"We produced a top class performance against Saracens last Sunday and showed what a quality side we can be," said Booth.
"We need to maintain those standards as we head into the second half of the season. After watching Northampton in recent weeks, it is clear that they contest the breakdown very hard and push the laws to the limit.
"We will need to focus on that aspect of tomorrow's match to ensure we have a good attacking platform."
Northampton: 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 Euan Murray, 4 Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe, 5 Juandre Kruger, 6 Courtney Lawes, 7 Phil Dowson, 8 Roger Wilson.
Replacements: 16 Brett Sharman, 17 Jon Vickers, 18 Brian Mujati, 19 Christian Day, 20 Neil Best, 21 Alan Dickens, 22 Shane Geraghty, 23 Chris Mayor.
London Irish: 15 Delon Armitage, 14 Tom Homer, 13 Elvis Seveali'i, 12 Seilala Mapusua, 11 Peter Hewat, 10 Chris Malone, 9 Paul Hodgson; 1 Clarke Dermody, 2 David Paice, 3 Paulica Ion, 4 Nick Kennedy, 5 Bob Casey (capt), 6 Kieran Roche, 7 Steffon Armitage, 8 Chris Hala'Ufia.
Replacements: 16 Danie Coetzee, 17 Dan Murphy, 18 Faan Rautenbach, 19 Andy Perry, 20 Jonathon Fisher, 21 John Rudd, 22 Ryan Lamb, 23 Alfredo Lalanne.