Northampton hope for emergence of more young stars

Acting head coach Jake Sharp is hoping more Northampton Saints youngsters make a name for themselves when the Prem Rugby Cup resumes at the weekend.

James Pater will start at fly-half and centre Freddie St John could step up from the club's academy for his senior debut in front of a sell-out crowd when they host East Midlands rivals Leicester Tigers.

They have the shining example of England and Lions back row Henry Pollock to follow as they step in for seniors away on international duty.

"I want to see the young backs being exposed to it, can they cope with it?," academy coach Sharp - who is stepping up into Sam Vesty's regular role for this competition - told BBC Radio Northampton's Saints Show.

"Freddie has played for Leicester Lions in front of 200 people, now he's going to play in front of 15,000.

"We're going to find out 'is he ready now?', 'is he going to be ready in six months?'. Is he the next Fraser Dingwall? That's the exciting thing about this cup."

He continued: "We're so consistent in our messaging, it doesn't matter who's coaching, it doesn't matter who's playing in the shirt, the expectation is that we're going to perform."

There is a four-week block of Prem Rugby Cup matches before Saints resume their league campaign against Newcastle Red Bulls on 21 March.

And they have ground to make up in the cup competition as two wins from their opening four games earlier in the season has left them fourth out of five in Pool B, with Leicester top of the standing with four wins out of four.

Sharp is delighted to have been given the opportunity to take a more senior coaching role for this phase.

"We are fortunate that it's a very collaborative group (of coaches). Me and Sam work so closely together day on day that it doesn't matter who stands up and talks, we share who talks in meetings," he said.

"It's a very shared approach and that goes across the whole coaching group. And with (defence coach) Lee (Radford) getting his success with Scotland, now Jim (Henry) gets his chance to go from Bedford and stand up in front of the group from a defence point of view.

"We've got the full support of Dows [director of rugby Phil Dowson] and Sam to go and do that."