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Chris Boyd follows through on promise, making 8 changes for Northampton trip to Leinster

(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Chris Boyd has followed through on his claim that he would rest some star names and play youngsters instead as he has made eight changes to his Northampton side for Saturday’s Champions Cup assignment at Leinster. Speaking on BT Sport in the wake of last week’s agonising round one loss at home to Bordeaux, Boyd candidly admitted he would likely send an understrength team to Dublin. 

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“I’m not worried about the Premiership for now but with the way this new European structure is with pools of three, particularly when you’re on the back end of the seeding like we were, seeded against Bordeaux and Leinster, I think you have got to win three games out of four to hope to go through so we will probably change tack and give some youngsters a run next week and give some boys a rest.”

His admission was widely criticised after a weekend in which English clubs won just two of the eight Champions Cup opening round matches they were involved in, but Boyd has stuck to his plan by selecting just seven of the Northampton starters versus Bordeaux to start again in Ireland amid the backdrop of a twelve-match losing streak.

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The Burns brothers Freddie and Billy guest on this week’s RugbyPass Offload

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The Burns brothers Freddie and Billy guest on this week’s RugbyPass Offload

Regular full-back George Furbank switches from full-back to out-half in place of Dan Biggar, who is said to have a knee injury. Tom Collins comes in at No15 while the three other backline changes see Ryan Olowofela, Fraser Dingwall and Tom James chosen instead of Ahsee Tuala, Matt Proctor and Alex Mitchell. 

There are four changes to the pack. Skipper Alex Waller and Paul Hill come in at prop for Nick Auterac and Owen Franks, while Alex Moon and Api Ratuniyarawa take over at second row with Dave Ribbans rested and Nick Isiekwe switching to blindside instead of Courtney Lawes. 

NORTHAMPTON (vs Leinster, Saturday)
15 Tom Collins
14 Ryan Olowofela
13 Fraser Dingwall
12 Rory Hutchinson
11 Taqele Naiyaravoro
10 George Furbank
9 Tom James
1 Alex Waller (capt)
2 Sam Matavesi
3 Paul Hill
4 Alex Moon
5 Api Ratuniyarawa
6 Nick Isiekwe
7 Tom Wood
8 Shaun Adendorff

Replacements:
16 Mikey Haywood
17 Francois van Wyk
18 Owen Franks
19 Alex Coles
20 Teimana Harrison
21 Henry Taylor
22 Piers Francis
23 Matt Proctor

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Bull Shark 1 hour ago
Rassie Erasmus' Boks selection policy is becoming bizarre

To be fair, the only thing that drives engagement on this site is over the top critiques of Southern Hemisphere teams.


Or articles about people on podcasts criticizing southern hemisphere teams.


Articles regarding the Northern Hemisphere tend to be more positive than critical. I guess to also rile up kiwis and Saffers who seem to be the majority of followers in the comments section. There seems to be a whole department dedicated to Ireland’s world ranking news.


Despite being dialled into the Northern edition - I know sweet fokall about what’s going on in France.


And even less than fokall about what’s cutting in Japan - which has a fast growing, increasingly premium League competition emerging.


And let’s not talk about the pacific. Do they even play rugby Down there.


Oh and the Americas. I’ve read more articles about a young, stargazing Welshman’s foray into NFL than I have anything related to either the north and south continents of the Americas.


I will give credit that the women’s game is getting decent airtime. But for the rest and the above; it’s just pathetic coming from a World Rugby website.


Just consider the innovation emerging in Japan with the pedigree of coaches over there.


There’s so much good we could be reading.


Instead it’s unimaginative “critical for the sake of feigning controversial”. Which is lazy, because in order to pull that off all you need to be really good at is:


1. Being a doos;

2. Having an opinion.


No prior experience needed.


Which is not journalism. That’s like all or most of us in the comments section. People like Finn (who I believe is a RP contributor).


Anyway. Hopefully it will get better. The game is growing and the interest in the game is growing. Maybe it will attract more qualified journalists over time.

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