Weekend preview: Toulon can afford to rest stellar names against Bath

Tom Youngs will captain Leicester, hoping to impress the England coach, Eddie Jones

Tom Youngs will captain Leicester today, hoping to impress the England coach, Eddie Jones (Getty Images)

Toulon v Bath (Sunday, 3.15)

When Bath, in 1998, became the first English club to win the Heineken Cup, Toulon were in financial meltdown, descending slowly towards the second tier of French rugby. The intervening years have been kinder to the team from the Côte d’Azur than to the one from Somerset.

Toulon completed a hat-trick of European titles last season and consider themselves strong enough to leave players as good as Steffon Armitage, Frédéric Michalak, Sébastien Tillous-Borde and Maxime Mermoz on the bench. Bath travel without their most potent tight forward in Dave Attwood and their fizzing Fijian scrum-half Niko Matawalu.

Leicester v Northampton (Saturday, 3.15)

Back in Premiership land, derbies are the flavour of the weekend – and there is none more meaningful than the East Midlands version. Leicester and Northampton have subjected each other to God’s amount of punishment in recent seasons and with the England coach, Eddie Jones, watching this one live, some of the individual contests could be just a little vigorous.

The Leicester hooker Tom Youngs, skipper for the day, will not lock horns with his arch-rival Dylan Hartley from the get-go: Hartley, widely touted as the next England captain, starts on the bench. But the young Northampton loose-head prop Alex Waller is sure to go after the red-rose regular Dan Cole at the set piece while Brendon O’Connor and Taimana Harrison, two New Zealand flankers with an eye on England honours, will be at the heart of the conflict.

Harlequins v Saracens (Saturday, 3.00)

The London derby is a rather high-class affair with Quins third in the table, nine points adrift of the unbeaten leaders. The highly rated Jack Clifford starts in their back row, albeit at No 8 rather than No 7, where the England hierarchy would probably prefer to see him. Among the backs, Marland Yarde has a priceless chance to nudge himself ahead of Chris Ashton in the wing pecking order.

Steve Borthwick, the new England forwards coach, will fix his eye on the Saracens forwards Jamie George and George Kruis, not to mention the Vunipola brothers. And when the exciting Maro Itoje materialises off the bench, the interest will be intense.

London Irish v Newcastle (Sunday, 1.00)

Life is hard at the dog end of the table, and it will become a whole lot harder for London Irish if they mess up here. Newcastle’s win over Bath last time out has put the Exiles under serious pressure, which explains the beefing up of the home pack. Luke Narraway has been switched from blind to open in the back row, with Jebb Sinclair filling the space left by Blair Cowan’s demotion to replacement.

The Tynesiders have Scott Lawson back at hooker and have moved each of their loose forwards into a fresh position – an intriguing decision that could pay dividends.

Exeter v Gloucester (Saturday, 3.00)

Exeter began their Premiership existence with a famous victory over their fellow West Countrymen and are favourites to extend their 12-month unbeaten home record with another win. But the return of the scrum-half Greig Laidlaw and No 8 Ben Morgan to the spine of the Gloucester team is far from insignificant.

Wasps v Worcester (Sunday, 2.00)

Wasps have a number of top-notch players missing, but Charles Piutau, Elliot Daly, Joe Simpson, Joe Launchbury, James Haskell and George Smith should have too much between them for Dean Ryan’s band of willing strivers.