Northampton Saints director of rugby knows victory against local rivals Leicester will put Saints fans on cloud nine this weekend.

Franklin’s Gardens has been sold out for some time for the East Midlands derby, and while Mallinder appreciates that supporters of both sides have been eagerly awaiting the action all season he insists that the Saints squad has been approaching the game no differently than any other.

“Local derbies are important, especially from a supporter’s point of view, but in terms of our overall Guinness Premiership campaign tomorrow’s game is as vital as any other,” he said today. “Every league point matters as much in every Premiership round. Tomorrow evening we will be giving our all to win all of the league points that are on offer.

“To do so we will have to put in another good performance. When Leicester came back from a 19-point deficit to beat Bath last weekend they showed that they have the ability to play for the full 80 minutes and the quality to create and finish chances.

“However we produced some good rugby in beating Bristol and are looking forward to meeting the challenge of facing Leicester.”

Seru Rabeni and Toby Flood return to the Tigers starting XV with Dan Hipkiss is ruled out by a hamstring injury and England international Flood rested under the EPS agreement last weekend.

Ben Herring is at openside with Lewis Moody rested after starting the last nine games since his return to action, and George Chuter is included at hooker. Marco Wentzel partners Ben Kay in the second row and Brett Deacon comes into the team at No8.

Forwards coach Richard Cockerill, leading the coaching team in the absence of Heyneke Meyer, said: “We had a good win over Bath last week and we are building a little bit of momentum, but now we are into a very important local derby.

“Saints are unbeaten at home and they have beaten all the big sides there.

“There is a healthy rivalry between the clubs but also a lot of respect, and that is what you want in sport.”

Northampton Saints

15 Ben Foden; 14 Paul Diggin; 13 Jon Clarke; 12 James Downey; 11 Sean Lamont; 10 Stephen Myler 9; Lee Dickson; 1 Tom Smith; 2 Dylan Hartley; 3 Euan Murray; 4 Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe (capt); 5 Juandre Kruger; 6 Mark Easter; 7 Scott Gray; 8 Mark Hopley

Replacements: 16 Paul Shields; 17 Soane Tonga’uiha; 18 Christian Day; 19 Courtney Lawes; 20 Bruce Reihana; 21 Carlos Spencer; 22 Chris Mayor

Leicester Tigers
15 Geordan Murphy; 14 Johne Murphy; 13 Seru Rabeni; 12 Aaron Mauger (captain); 11 Matt Smith; 10 Toby Flood; 9 Julien Dupuy; 1 Boris Stankovich; 2 George Chuter; 3 Julian White; 4 Marco Wentzel; 5 Ben Kay; 6 Tom Croft; 7 Ben Herring; 8 Brett Deacon
Replacements: 16 Benjamin Kayser; 17 Martin Castrogiovanni; 18 Martin Corry; 19 Craig Newby; 20 Ben Youngs; 21 Sam Vesty; 22 Scott Hamilton