Northampton Saints v Racing 92: Champions Cup preview
By Keith Moore
Last Updated: 20/12/15 5:15pm
Dan Carter starts for Racing 92 as they make the trip to Franklin's Gardens to take on Northampton in the Champions Cup.
The former All Black pulled the strings in a 33-3 win over Saints last week, scoring nine points with the boot in a man-of-the-match debut performance that earned him a standing ovation from the Stade Yves-Du-Manoir crowd.
Carter partners Wales' Mike Phillips at half-back while a back three of wingers Joe Rokocoko and Juan Imhoff together with Brice Dulin offers plenty of attacking threat for the Parisians.
Northampton have named a very strong side for the encounter, with George North facing an enticing battle with Rocokoco on the wing.
"We've got to front up on Friday night and get the job done," said North. "The boys want to rectify what happened last weekend.
"The standard that the French teams have is tough to step up to but we've been looking forward to the return fixture. Racing are a big team that are full of stars.
"They have enough quality that they have two or three sides to pick from, so for us it's one of those where we need to deal with and adapt. But the support that we get here is massive for us and it inspires us to go again."
England's Courtney Lawes joins veteran Victor Matfield in the second row and Lee Dickson captains the side in the No 9 jersey.
Another showdown that will interest the crowds is at the scrum, where Eddy Ben Arous packs down against Saints' Kieran Brookes, with the latter widely tipped to form part of Eddie Jones' England setup at next year's Six Nations.
Racing currently occupy top spot in the pool, with Saints in second. Jim Mallinder's men would leapfrog their opponents into first place with a win, but the French side still have a game in hand after their encounter with Glasgow was postponed following the Paris attacks.
Northampton: 15 Ben Foden, 14 Ah See Tuala, 13 George Pisi, 12 Luther Burrell, 11 George North, 10 Steve Myler, 9 Lee Dickson (c); 1 Alex Waller, 2 Mikey Haywood, 3 Kieran Brookes, 4 Courtney Lawes, 5 Victor Matfield, 6 Jamie Gibson, 7 Teimana Harrison, 8 Sam Dickinson.
Replacements: 16 Matti Williams, 17 Ethan Waller, 18 Paul Hill, 19 Christian Day, 20 Michael Paterson, 21 Kahn Fotuali'i, 22 JJ Hanrahan, 23 Jamie Elliott.
Racing 92: 15 Brice Dulin, 14 Joe Rokocoko, 13 Casey Laulala, 12 Henry Chavancy, 11 Juan Imhoff, 10 Dan Carter, 9 Mike Phillips; 1 Eddy Ben Arous, 2 Dimitri Szarzewski (c), 3 Ben Tameifuna, 4 Luke Charteris, 5 Francois van der Merwe, 6 Wenceslas Lauret, 7 Yannick Nyanga, 8 Chris Masoe.
Replacecments: 16 Camille Chat, 17 Julien Brugnaut, 18 Cedate Gomes Sa, 19 Manuel Carizza, 20 Antonie Claassen, 21 Maxime Machenaud, 22 Johannes Goosen, 23 Marc Andreu.