Jim Mallinder has been at Franklin's Gardens since the summer of 2007

Northampton Saints director of rugby Jim Mallinder plans to rotate his team from now until the end of the season to avoid burn-out.

The Saints, second in the Guinness Premiership, in the LV Cup semi-final and the Heineken Cup quarter-final, face a busy finale to the season.

"We've got to look at rotating," Mallinder told BBC Radio Northampton.

"We can't play the same 15 every game for 80 minutes. We have to look at the squad and have confidence using them."

After losing 13-6 at Harlequins in their previous game, second-placed Northampton responded well on Saturday with a 19-3 win over arch-rivals Leicester to narrow the gap on the Guinness Premiership leaders.

"It's difficult to play well in every single game that you play," admits Mallinder. "We saw that in the game against Harlequins.

"Mentally, quite a few of the players weren't up for it and possibly that was the time when we should have changed a few more people round.

"We've got to look at it and make sure we get the right mix at the right time."

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