Northampton determined to quash old doubts

Northampton will have two captains, Budge Pountney and John Leslie, on the pitch when they confront Gloucester in the final of the Powergen Cup at Twickenham on Saturday. This is an obvious improvement on last year's showpiece, when the Midlanders appeared to field 15 captains, all of them in argumentative mood, and found themselves impaled on the painful end of a 38-7 shellacking from London Irish – an experience Wayne Smith, their coach, describes as "embarrassing".

Pountney and Leslie, now in Test retirement after doing their respective bits for Scotland as foreign-born internationals of convenience, have been sharing the leadership duties all season. Smith's thinking in this regard has never been satisfactorily explained – maybe the burden of captaining such bristly, ultra-competitive characters as Matthew Dawson, Ben Cohen and Mark Connors is too much for any one player to shoulder – and it is unclear what will happen if one opts for a kick at goal while the other favours a tap-and-go for the line. The Saints may start fighting among themselves before they start fighting with their opponents.

Still, Smith believes his side will arrive at Twickenham in a better frame of mind – calm, methodical, quietly determined – than they did in 2002. "A lot of our work this week has been devoted to learning the lessons of last year's final," admitted the former All Black outside-half yesterday. "A good deal of effort has gone into giving ourselves the best opportunity to address the things that went wrong, to redress the balance. We were too emotional last time, definitely, and it caused us a great deal of hurt. It was a humbling experience all round.

"There are still some niggling doubts about this game: not only have Gloucester beaten us twice this season, they have beaten us up twice in the forwards – and if they do it a third time, we'll lose again.

"They are the best side in England at the moment, by a country mile. But we went some way towards putting things right by beating London Irish in the semi-final, and we're a wiser team now. The danger is in thinking that it's our turn this year, that it will turn out all right. It's never your turn in rugby, and it never turns out all right unless you make it right."

Smith has named a side containing 14 full internationals, from the long-serving Nick Beal at full-back to Andrew Blowers, the majestic Aucklander, at No 8. The only uncapped player is another New Zealander, the second-rower Matt Lord. By and large, the coach has opted for wizened know-how over adventurous youth: Peter Jorgensen, the former Wallaby centre, has been picked ahead of Chris Hyndman, while his Australian countryman, Connors, has been named in the back row at the expense of Darren Fox, one of the star turns in the semi-final.

Meanwhile, Gloucester have confirmed that five recently injured players – James Simpson-Daniel, Terry Fanolua, Andy Gomarsall, Rodrigo Roncero and Andy Hazell – are fit and available. All are named in a 26-man squad under the captaincy of Jake Boer, the supremely consistent flanker from South Africa. Hazell and James Forrester are likely to make up the crucial back-row combination, although both Junior Paramore and Peter Buxton live in hope.

One of Gloucester's former favourites, the scrum-half Scott Benton, has been released from the remainder of his contract at Leeds following a season of injury frustration.