Bath Rugby v Northampton Saints Premiership Preview

Bath have named England centre Jonathan Joseph to make his first appearance of the season this weekend against Northampton Saints tomorrow at the Rec in the Aviva Premiership.

Joseph returns from injury to partner inside centre Ollie Devoto in the midfield, with the back three comprising wings Matt Banahan and Semesa Rokoduguni, with Anthony Watson at fullback.

Chris Cook, a replacement during last weekend’s match against Leicester Tigers, starts this weekend at scrum-half alongside fly-half George Ford.

Nick Auterac, Rob Webber and Henry Thomas are named in the front row, as Dave Attwood returns to the second row, where Academy lock Tom Ellis also starts.

Openside Francois Louw captains the team, with blindside Matt Garvey and number eight Leroy Houston also reprising their roles in the back row.

Bath Rugby have won just one of their last four Aviva Premiership rugby fixtures: 45-14 at London Irish in round 4.

Bath were defeated in their most recent Premiership rugby home game by Harlequins in round 3 and have not lost back-to-back games in the tournament at the Recreation Ground since March 2014.

Northampton Saints have won their last three matches in all competitions since going down 6-12 at home to Saracens in Aviva Premiership Rugby on 7th November.

The Saints have not won away from home in the competition since they visited Bath on 21st February.

Northampton are unbeaten in their last eight Premiership Rugby encounters with Bath since Bath won 38-8 at the Rec in February 2011.

Meanwhile Northampton Saints have made four changes to the team that began last weekend’s home game with Gloucester, with Jamie Elliott, JJ Hanrahan, Ethan Waller and Teimana Harrison all coming into the starting side.

James Craig and hooker Reece Marshall both join through the replacements’ bench.

Match : Bath Rugby v Northampton Saints
Date : Recreation Ground,
Venue : Saturday 5 December
Kick Off : 3.15pm
Live on: BT Sport
Match Officials
Referee :Craig Maxwell-Keys (8th Premiership game)
Assistant Referees: Roger Baileff & Robin Goodliffe
TMO: Graham Hughes.

Teams

Bath

15 Anthony Watson , 14 Semesa Rokoduguni , 13 Jonathan Joseph , 12 Ollie Devoto , 11 Matt Banahan , 10 George Ford , 9 Chris Cook , 1 Nick Auterac , 2 Rob Webber , 3 Henry Thomas , 4 Dave Attwood , 5 Tom Ellis , 6 Matt Garvey , 7 Francois Louw (c) , 8 Leroy Houston

Replacements : 16 Ross Batty , 17 Max Lahiff , 18 Dave Wilson , 19 David Denton , 20 Guy Mercer , 21 Niko Matawalu , 22 Rhys Priestland , 23 Tom Homer

Northampton Saints

15 Ben Foden (c), 14 Jamie Elliott, 13 George Pisi, 12 Luther Burrell, 11 George North, 10 JJ Hanrahan, 9 Kahn Fotuali’i, 8 Sam Dickinson, 7 Teimana Harrison, 6 Jamie Gibson, 5 Christian Day, 4 Michael Paterson, 3 Kieran Brookes, 2 Mikey Haywood, 1 Ethan Waller

Replacements: 16 Reece Marshall, 17 Alex Waller, 18 Paul Hill, 19 Victor Matfield, 20 James Craig, 21 Lee Dickson, 22 Stephen Myler, 23 Ken Pisi