Premiership: Courtney Lawes starts on the flank for Northampton against Harlequins

There’s two games taking place in the Premiership on Friday as Northampton Saints face Harlequins and Sale Sharks meet Newcastle Falcons.

Matt Proctor will bring up a half-century of appearances in Black, Green and Gold on Friday evening as Northampton Saints take on Harlequins.

After a reverse at Twickenham earlier this season against the defending champions, Chris Boyd’s side (which contains six changes to the line-up that started against Bath last weekend) will have to be at their best to turn that result around in front of a bumper Franklin’s Gardens crowd.

On his 50th appearance for the club, Proctor starts on the wing as part of a back-line reshuffle which sees James Grayson start at fly-half and George Furbank switch to full-back.

Tommy Freeman lines up on the other wing, while Fraser Dingwall returns from injury to start in Northampton’s midfield outside Rory Hutchinson.

The in-form Alex Mitchell – Premiership player of the week in Round 23 – completes the back line and starts his 25th game of the season at scrum-half. No player has been directly involved in as many Premiership tries this term as Mitchell, with the number nine’s 10 tries and 12 assists coming at an average of one every 65 minutes so far.

Courtney Lawes is the headline inclusion in Saints’ pack, with the England international shaking off a hand injury to start in the back-row alongside skipper Lewis Ludlam and number eight Juarno Augustus.

Alex Coles (making his 50th league appearance) and Api Ratuniyarawa line-up together in the engine room for the second straight match, but it’s all change in the front-row as Emmanuel Iyogun and Conor Carey start either side of hooker Mike Haywood – with Sam Matavesi away with the Royal Navy this weekend.

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