Ferguson insists Saints' England stars will be game-ready despite lack of pre-season action

Clubs are unable to select their England men until the weekend of September 20, when the league gets underway.

Saints, who will start their title defence at The Rec, will play pre-season matches at home to Leinster and Bedford Blues on the next two weekends.

But they will have to do without the likes of Alex Mitchell, Fin Smith and skipper George Furbank.

However, assistant coach Ferguson is not fazed by that, insisting training sessions will be enough to prepare key men for big match action.

"We won't be the only ones (who can't select England men until the Premiership opener) because all England players are under that rule," Ferguson said.

"They've had their five weeks of mandatory leave, they came in and did a week of preparation during our off week and then we drip fed them into the sessions in the last couple of weeks.

"You see some of our Tuesday afternoon 15 on 15 sessions and they're not far off a game-day intensity anyway so I'm not concerned that boys won't be game-ready when it comes to it.

"Those who have had to gain it through the Leinster and Bedford games and those who have gained it through training are invariably the most accomplished players anyway so they'll slot seamlessly into that first league fixture."

The situation with the England players, who toured Japan and New Zealand during the summer, has played a part in Saints' decision to schedule only two pre-season games.

Some clubs have opted for more, but Ferguson feels two is the right amount.

"It's a decision based on our England boys being only two weeks back from their time away, their five weeks off," he said.

"So although the non-international squad have had a five-week pre-season block then a week off and then this is week six of that, the England boys are only two weeks into it.

"But we're still three weeks away from the first league game so you've got to manage that training period.

"Having a fixture does affect how your training week looks so the amount of rugby we can get into the squad that will play this week against Leinster and the following week against Bedford will be enough to prepare us for Bath.

"If you put a third game in, you're playing the same people quite a lot, but you also want to make sure there's enough people left behind and not playing to get the internationals up to speed ready for game time as well.

"It's a balancing act that I'm pleased I don't do but that Dows (Saints boss Phil Dowson) does really well to make sure we do get people at the right level going into that Bath game."

The players who are available to face Leinster on Saturday are now desperate to get stuck in, according to Ferguson.

He said: "We certainly need a game, that's for sure.

"It's a really good place to get to as a coach when you see in training that you can't give them any more without letting them off the leash so the guys are desperately looking forward to that.

"Will there be errors? Of course there will be. There will be new people getting into new systems but the non-negotiables or our intent and desire, which were key to last year, we'll expect to see.

"We think our training standard last year played a large part in our success, but the next level is you want to test that training against an opposition that doesn't know what's happening.

"The boys are right up for this. They need this game for us to have a look at where we are.

"I'm sure there will be elements to work on going into Bedford and then elements after that going into Bath.

"But the game doesn't lie so let's get a game."