Exeter Chiefs v Northampton Saints: Big match preview

Venue: Sandy Park, Exeter

Date and kick-off time: Sunday, May 11, 2025, 3pm

Weather forecast: 17c, showers

Live television coverage: TNT Sports

Referee: Karl Dickson

Assistant referees: George Selwood and Jamie Leahy

TMO: Andrew Jackson

No.4: James Clarke

Exeter Chiefs: 15. Josh Hodge; 14. Nick Lilley, 13. Henry Slade, 12. Will Rigg, 11. Paul Brown-Bampoe; 10. Harvey Skinner, 9. Stu Townsend; 1. Scott Sio, 2. Jack Yeandle, 3. Marcus Street; 4. Rusi Tuima, 5. Dafydd Jenkins (c); 6. Jacques Vermeulen, 7. Richard Capstick, 8. Ethan Roots.

Replacements: 16. Dan Frost, 17. Kwenzo Blose, 18. Josh Iosefa-Scott, 19. Christ Tshiunza, 20. Martin Moloney, 21. Tom Cairns, 22. Will Haydon-Wood, 23. Tamati Tua.

Saints: 15. Jake Garside; 14. Toby Cousins, 13. Tom Seabrook, 12. Tom Litchfield, 11. Will Glister; 10. Tom James, 9. Jonny Weimann; 1. Tom West, 2. Henry Walker, 3. Elliot Millar Mills; 4. Ed Prowse, 5. Chunya Munga; 6. Tom Lockett (c), 7. Fyn Brown, 8. Angus Scott-Young.

Replacements: 16. Craig Wright, 17. Tarek Haffar, 18. Luke Green, 19. Callum Hunter-Hill, 20. Reuben Logan, 21. Archie Benson, 22. Rafe Witheat, 23. Ewan Baker.

Not available for Saints selection: George Furbank, Sam Graham, George Hendy, George Makepeace-Cubitt, Iakopo Mapu, Archie McParland, Burger Odendaal, Tom Pearson, Toby Thame, Charlie Savala, Ollie Sleightholme, Robbie Smith.

Most recent meeting: Saturday, September 28, 2024: Saints 30 Exeter Chiefs 24 (Gallagher Premiership)

Exeter Chiefs director of rugby Rob Baxter: “The only thing that is success is a win. That’s where we’ve got to reset our expectations. I think, without realising it, our expectations have dropped to a relatively low level. We’ve got three games left in the season, limited training sessions, so we won’t be suddenly making radical changes. The one thing we’re not going to do is try to uplift and change everything. If anything, we’re narrowing our focus.”

Saints director of rugby Phil Dowson: "We enjoyed last weekend clearly and we did that properly. But we’ve also got to make sure we do the right thing for Exeter, we do the right thing for Saracens and we’re set up to go to Cardiff full of confidence and full of energy as well."

Opposition dangerman: Josh Hodge is a flying full-back who so often impresses, and he will need to be stopped in his tracks if Saints are to have any success here.

Tom Vickers’ prediction: If Saints win this, it would be the ultimate show of squad strength. They have rightly opted to rest most of the men who featured in Dublin last weekend, and they have so many injuries to deal with, but they still have some quality on the field and this will be a chance for players to step up. It’s a really tough ask against an Exeter side who will have been read the riot act after recent results, but it’s a fascinating encounter. Saints will be big underdogs, but they enjoyed that tag last weekend. Expect the away side to give this a real go. Exeter 34 Saints 27.