Preview: Northampton v Worcester

Northampton have named three new signings in their starting line-up for Sunday's home Guinness Premiership clash with Worcester.

Northampton have named three new signings in their starting line-up for Sunday's Guinness Premiership clash with Worcester at Franklin's Gardens.

Phil Dowson, Shane Geraghty and Santiago Bonorino will all make their bow for their new team on home turf, as the Saints welcome the Warriors in a re-match of last year's opening day.

The Saints have had a promising set of warm-up matches. But Director of Rugby Jim Mallinder has warned that these results are not necessarily an indicator of how the season will go.

“We had a positive pre-season, but that won't matter if we do not get a good result on Sunday afternoon,” he said.

“Worcester have a settled squad and will probably bring back in some influential players, such as Chris Latham and Rico Gear, who missed the end of last season. There are several other young talented players in the Warriors squad like Miles Benjamin and Alex Grove and if their pack gains some momentum they will cause us problems.

“However our players are ready. They have worked well over the past few weeks and there were several tough decisions to make for selection for this game. As ever we have focused fully on this game and are not looking ahead of ourselves. The most important thing is to get the Guinness Premiership off to a good start and we will be putting in every effort to achieve that on Sunday.”

Meanwhile, back-row Kai Horstmann returns to the Worcester starting XV as the club opens its Guinness Premiership season away from home.

Horstmann has been out of action since damaging ribs against Brive in the European Challenge Cup in April. But the 28-year-old has now been declared fully fit for the big clash at Franklin's Gardens and will line up alongside skipper Pat Sanderson and Tom Wood in the back row.

Director of Rugby Mike Ruddock also names new French signing Olivier Sourgens in the front row alongside Matt Mullan and Aleki Lutui.

Elsewhere and highly-rated centre Greg King will join Scotland A international Alex Grove in the centre, with Sam Tuitupou and Dale Rasmussen both ruled out injured.

Fly-half Willie Walker, who completed his move from Gloucester in the summer, links up with scrum half Ryan Powell and speedster duo Miles Benjamin and Marcel Garvey are named on the wing.

“The new season has come around very quickly and we are really looking forward to it,” said Ruddock.

“It's a tough trip for us first day and a big challenge, but one we intend to face head on. We will go with the right attitude; we didn't play well on the first day last season and know we must perform this time.”

Form: The two teams also met at Franklin's Gardens in round one last season, where the home side won 21-13. Northampton Saints' only opening weekend defeat in the last six seasons came in 2005 at Leicester. The reigning European Challenge Cup champions have won five of their last six matches in all competitions. The Saints have been defeated just once at Franklin's Gardens since March 2007: 13-19 by Newcastle in the Guinness Premiership on 28 February 2009. Worcester Warriors have not managed to open their season with a victory since a 26-20 success at Otley in National One in 2003. The Warriors won their most recent away game in the Premiership: 13-6 at Gloucester on 21 April. The Saints have won three of their last four games between the two sides, whilst the Warriors have been victorious on three of their four previous visits to Northampton in the Guinness Premiership.

The teams:

Northampton: 15 Ben Foden, 14 Paul Diggin, 13 Jon Clarke, 12 Shane Geraghty, 11 Bruce Reihana, 10 Stephen Myler, 9 Lee Dickson, 8 Roger Wilson, 7 Neil Best, 6 Phil Dowson, 5 Juandre Kruger, 4 Courtney Lawes, 3 Santiago Bonorino, 2 Dylan Hartley (capt), 1 Soane Tonga'uiha.
Replacements: 16 Regardt Dreyer, 17 Brett Sharman, 18 Alex Waller, 19 Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe, 20 Scott Gray, 21 Alan Dickens, 22 James Downey, 23 Chris Ashton.

Worcester: 15 Chris Latham, 14 Marcel Garvey, 13 Alex Grove, 12 Greg King, 11 Miles Benjamin, 10 Willie Walker, 9 Ryan Powell, 8 Kai Horstmann, 7 Pat Sanderson (capt), 6 Tom Wood, 5 Craig Gillies, 4 Greg Rawlinson, 3 Olivier Sourgens, 2 Aleki Lutui, 1 Matt Mullan.
Replacements: 16 Adam Black, 17 Chris Fortey, 18 Tevita Taumoepeau, 19 Graham Kitchener, 20 James Collins, 21 Jonny Arr, 22 George Crook, 23 Rico Gear.

Date: Sunday, September 6
Kick-off: 13:15 BST
Venue: Franklin's Gardens
Referee: Chris White