With both ourselves and Northampton coming off the back of two wins respectively, and both teams looking to improve their chances of qualifying for the end of season Wild Card play-offs, this is sure to be a highly competitive game between two highly charged teams.

A fortnight ago we beat Newcastle Falcons by 39-23 and had we taken our chances then the scoreline should have been far more convincing, with possibly as many as four tries being missed due to our own errors.

Amid all the usual end of season speculation that is going on at the moment, I can confirm one thing that is true. Both Kai Horstmann and Henry Barratt have gone on 'loan' to the London Broncos for the next few weeks. With only two second team games left this season, Bath (away) on Tuesday (29th March) and the Army (at Aldershot) on Tuesday 19th April, it was an ideal opportunity for both these players to extend their rugby experience as well as play some competitive rugby.

It also helps the Broncos, who only operate a small squad and have a number of injuries at the moment despite the great start they have made to the Super League season. Although the two games are very different, we have trained with the Broncos before and I'm sure both Henry and Kai will enjoy the experience.

For the same reason, a number of our Academy players have been loaned to Esher until the end of this season to ensure they are playing some competitive rugby.

The injury news is that Ugo Monye will miss the Northampton game this Saturday due to a calf injury he picked up representing England at the Sevens World Cup in Hong Kong last weekend. Will Greenwood is now back in full training and is expected to return to action at some stage during our remaining three games against London Irish, Leeds Tykes and Sale Sharks. Andy Dunne is also progressing well, but is not quite ready yet.

On the positive front, Simon Maling has recovered from the injury that forced him to pull out of the Newcastle game and will return on the bench this weekend, along with Gavin Duffy who is back from international duty with Ireland.

The start of this season was extremely disappointing, losing all of our first eight Zurich Premiership games. However, over the last eight matches we have picked up 30 points and given ourselves the chance of qualifying for next season's Heineken Cup through the Wild Card play-offs. It is a goal that we have set ourselves, which means that there is everything to play for between now and the end of April.

Look forward to seeing you all at Franklins Gardens on Saturday, in what is sure to be a very physical and highly charged atmosphere.

P.S. - Had a great holiday in South Africa!