Saints suffering from Heineken hangover

Northampton's line-up for this evening's Allied Dunbar Premiership meeting with Wasps at Franklin's Gardens will be nowhere near as accomplished as the one that took the club to a first European Cup final in such nerve-jangling fashion at the weekend, but it will at least be a whole lot fitter.

The Saints' walking wounded can be divided into two broad groups - those who are seriously incapacitated, like Craig Moir, and those who are not nearly so fortunate, like Pat Lam - and all of them are being withheld from tonight's proceedings.

Given that the Tetley's Bitter Cup final, also against Wasps, is just 96 hours distant, the Midlanders can hardly be blamed for fielding what amounts to a second-string XV. Of the 22-man squad named by the coach, John Steele, yesterday, only the outside-half, Paul Grayson, the lock, Andy Newman, and the blind-side flanker, Don Mackinnon, could be described as strong first-choice contenders. Of that trio, Grayson and Mackinnon were relegated to the status of bench-bunnies for Sunday's enthralling Heineken Cup semi-final with Llanelli, although the former did manage to get on in time to kick his side to victory.

According to the Northampton back-room staff, most of the casualties will recover in time for Saturday's trophy chase at Twickenham. Moir, the right wing, finished the Llanelli encounter with a knee injury, but tests indicated that the damage would respond to treatment. Matt Dawson's shoulder condition is more worrying - the England scrum-half and captain has a 60-40 chance of starting the domestic final - while Lam, who pushed his recently dislocated shoulder to the limit and beyond in a courageous display far beyond the call of sanity, is bullish about his prospects. "My shoulder won't be normal, but then my body hasn't been normal since I was about 20," said the thirtysomething Samoan.

Wasps intend to play at strength, although Phil Greening, their England hooker, has knee trouble and will not be considered. "We need to be full-on in our last three Premiership games," said Nigel Melville, the Londoners' director of rugby. "When you take your foot off the gas and don't go for things, you can lose the plot completely. We haven't played for eight or nine days and the players are keen on a run-out before the final. Besides, there are a couple ofselection issues to be decided before Twickenham."

Northampton still have three routes into next season's Heineken Cup - their two finals, plus the Premiership - while Wasps have two. The Londoners can amass 34 points by winning their remaining matches, but as they require other results to go their way if they are to finish in the top four or five, the Tetley's Bitter final is by far their most promising option.

Northampton, on the other hand, need two league victories from three outings to guarantee qualification through a top-five Premiership position.

Meanwhile, rugby's "Grannygate" scandal stirred in its grave yesterday with the publication of the full findings of the International Rugby Board disciplinary panel, which severely reprimanded both the Welsh and Scottish unions last week but failed to impose fines or suspensions as a result of the fielding of ineligible players during recent Tests. The panel found that the Welsh had been "grossly negligent" in failing to check the ancestries of Brett Sinkinson, Shane Howarth and Tyrone Maullin, all of whom played representative rugby this season.

In the case of Sinkinson, the panel said, the degree of negligence bordered on "recklessness". However, the panel found that there was no deliberate breach of the eligibility regulations, although the evidence indicated that "there may have been attempts by some players to mislead the WRU". The panel's refusal to take action on that score because it was a matter "in the exclusive jurisdiction" of the union has infuriated the wider rugby community, but is unlikely to be challenged in any meaningful sense.