Aviva Premiership: Northampton boss Jim Mallinder hopes Luther Burrell wins back England place

Northampton director of rugby Jim Mallinder backed Luther Burrell to win back his place in the England side after he starred in Saints’ Aviva Premiership win over London Irish.

The Aviva Premiership champions returned to the top of the table after recording a scruffy 19-12 win at the Madekski Stadium, with centre Burrell scoring the only try of the game.

Bath duo Kyle Eastmond and Jonathan Joseph are looking good for England places with three matches left before head coach Stuart Lancaster names his squad for November, while rugby league star Sam Burgess is due to arrive at the Recreation Ground next week.

Centre is a competitive position and Luther enjoys that. Throughout his career he's always been up against it.

"Centre is a competitive position and Luther enjoys that. Throughout his career he's always been up against it," Mallinder said.

"He's not worried about the competition, instead he's just concentrating on playing well for Saints. Hopefully Stuart Lancaster will pick him."

England forwards Tom Wood and Dylan Hartley missed the victory over the Exiles with back injuries, but Mallinder expects them to return against Sale next Saturday.

"Tom was close to playing against Irish. He re-did the injury so we've been cautious in building him back up," Mallinder added.

"He's increased his load at the end of this week, so we hope he'll be fit to play against Sale next weekend.

Return

"Dylan also has a sore back, which he did in training in midweek. We expect him back next weekend."

Northampton admitted a third member of their England contingent into the treatment room when scrum-half Lee Dickson limped off after 20 minutes with a rib problem.

Mallinder said: "Lee is just a bit sore and hopefully he'll be okay. He's quite confident he'll be okay."

Northampton fly-half Stephen Myler finished with a 14-point haul consisting of four penalties and a conversion.

"We said beforehand that if we got a three-point win here that would do. Instead we got a seven-point win," Mallinder said.

"Irish have been playing well and in the second half they put us under pressure. Sometimes you base away games on your defence and we were outstanding in that department."

London Irish trailed 10-0 at half-time but fought back with four penalties from Shane Geraghty to secure a losing bonus point.

"This is the best team in England and we got ourselves in the position of giving ourselves a shot. We came up just short," director of rugby Brian Smith said.

"Week-on-week we're earning the respect of our opponents and that's phase one for us at the moment. The next step we must take is put these teams away."