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Much-changed Saints hand debut to summer recruit

Bath , United Kingdom - 8 March 2024; George Makepeace-Cubitt of England celebrates his side's fourth try during the U20 Six Nations Rugby Championship match between England and Ireland at The Recreation Ground in Bath, England. (Photo By Harry Murphy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Northampton Saints have handed a debut to England U20 international George Makepeace-Cubitt, who was playing in National League One last season for Rams Rugby.

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Once part of the London Irish academy, the versatile back was picked up by Saints over the summer and is now set for his first senior outing for the club six games into the Gallagher Premiership season.

Makepeace-Cubitt, who becomes Saints #2045, has been handed the No.10 jersey for Friday’s trip to Bristol, as the defending champions look to sign off from the first block of leagues fixtures on a high.

The 20-year-old is one of 10 new starters for Saints across the line-up from last week, as Director of Rugby Phil Dowson rings the changes while several England internationals are away with the national side for a training camp ahead of the Autumn Nations Series.

Saints got back to winning ways last time out with a resounding 47-17 win over Sale Sharks, moving the men in Black, Green and Gold up to fifth in the Gallagher Premiership table, and they now travel to Ashton Gate in search of their first away victory of the season – and a first win at Ashton Gate since 2021.

Fixture
Gallagher Premiership
Bristol
31 - 23
Full-time
Northampton
All Stats and Data

Lock Alex Coles will skipper Saints in Bristol in the absence of club captain George Furbank, taking on the role for the third time in his career from Saints’ second row, while being joined in the engine room by Fiji international Temo Mayanavanua.

Tom West starts at loose-head prop for Saints, with hooker Curtis Langdon and tighthead prop Elliot Millar Mills – who was named in Scotland’s squad for the Autumn Nations Series yesterday – also returning to Saints’ starting XV to form a fresh-look front row.

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Josh Kemeny is handed the blindside flanker role  to make his sixth appearance in his debut season at Saints, while Tom Pearson and Henry Pollock retain their places at openside flanker and No.8 respectively.

Makepeace-Cubitt joins in-form scrum-half Tom James in Saints’ half-back berths, while centres Rory Hutchinson – who was also named in Scotland’s squad yesterday – and Tom Litchfield form Northampton’s midfield partnership outside them.

Saints call on a new-look back three for the clash with Bears, as George Hendy shifts to fullback with Tom Seabrook making his first appearance of the season on Northampton’s wing, and James Ramm – who assisted two of Saints’ tries last week while scoring one of his own – also comes into the starting line-up.

Craig Wright, a 20-year-old hooker, is set to make his Premiership debut should he enter the action at Ashton Gate.

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Northampton: 15 George Hendy; 14 James Ramm, 13 Tom Litchfield, 12 Rory Hutchinson, 11 Tom Seabrook; 10 George Makepeace-Cubitt, 9 Tom James; 1 Tom West, 2 Curtis Langdon, 3 Elliot Millar Mills, 4 Temo Mayanavanua, 5 Alex Coles (c), 6 Josh Kemeny, 7 Tom Pearson, 8 Henry Pollock. Replacements: 16 Craig Wright, 17 Emmanuel Iyogun, 18 Luke Green, 19 Gavin Thornbury, 20 Angus Scott-Young, 21 Archie McParland, 22 Charlie Savala, 23 Jake Garside.

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EllenMoody 5 hours ago
Great moments in Lions tour history – JPR’s drop goal and the All Blacks' brutal revenge

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JWH 6 hours ago
'Matches between Les Bleus and the All Blacks are rarely for the faint-hearted.'

Do you hear yourself? Do you have any concept of world view? Have you tried looking into why people call Ireland ‘arrogant’? Obviously not.


We started calling you arrogant when you called our captain a ‘shit Richie McCaw’. In New Zealand. On our turf. Don’t think that kind of behaviour really calls for respect, does it.


NZ don’t really talk ourselves up, if anything the rugby does it for us. No kiwi goes in the media and says: ‘We are gonna win the RWC’. However, I have found many instance of IRISH media saying that the Irish should win, without a doubt. THAT is disrespectful.


The All Blacks have played good rugby, even some of the best rugby ever, at many points in history, but I don’t think you could find a single instance of one of those players, or the NZ media, saying that they should whitewash their opponents. Ever.


Now, onto your analysis. Ireland DID choke the QF. They beat the champions, they were ranked first coming into it, a lot of players at the peaks of their powers. Its hard to say that they didn’t choke. Obviously, their preparation was just not as good as NZ, and thats all there really is to it.


If Ireland had repsected that ABs team and that QF more, maybe they would’ve prepared properly for it and won. But they didn’t.


Maybe if Ireland had won their QF last RWC, they wouldn’t have to be in the same pool as SA and Scotland. I mean, its called a draw for a reason. NZ got third last RWC, so of course they should get a reasonable pool, and they were ranked pretty highly too. If you want to talk about easy pools, look no further than Pool 3 with England, Australia, Fiji, and Georgia I think?


Now, obviously you don’t remember how that QF ended, so I’ll go ahead and rectify that. Ireland reclaimed the ball off kickoff and marched for 20ish phases into the opposition half. Savea then won a turnover, but the referee refused to give it, so play went on. Finally, at the NZ 22, after not giving up a single penatly in 25 phases of hard defense, Sam Whitelock, the most capped All Black of all time, wins the game with an incredible steal.


Now, NZ players having a go at Ireland. Do you cry when you get hit after making the first swing? We all know Sexton is a prick on the field, its just the truth. And Ioane never backs down from a clash, so he thought he should humble a player who has never won an international knockout game who thought he was all that. Don’t really see the issue, its poetic justice really.

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