Northampton v Saracens: Teams

Phil Dowson will captain Northampton Saints in Sunday's LV= Cup semi-final showdown against Saracens.

Dowson starts at blindside flanker in one of three changes to the side that defeated Sale 15-7 in Guinness Premiership action last weekend.

Centre Shane Geraghty starts at fly-half in place of Stephen Myler, who moves to the bench, while Jon Clarke comes in for Joe Ansbro at centre.

Saints director of rugby Jim Mallinder is expecting a tough challenge from their league rivals, even with the extra help of home advantage.

Good team

"Saracens are a good team," said Mallinder.

"They know how they want to play and they've had a lot of success with it. They've got some very good players and we'll have to be at our best this weekend to beat them.

"They are very strong in the contact area in attack and defence and put a lot of pressure on you. They've also got some pacy backs out wide who are good on the counter-attack and half-backs who can put a good, structured kicking game together so we've got to be aware of those threats as well."

Mallinder, who has used 33 Saints players in the LV= Cup so far this season, is thrilled to see his side reach the last four of the competition.

"The players who have come in have played well and stepped up to the mark," he added.

"Ever since the early rounds of the LV= Cup, when we had a lot of players out playing representative rugby, the rest of the squad have all stepped up and played well. That's one of the positives for our season.

"We've seen the tournament as a way of winning some silverware and we want to win it. But first we have the semi-final and we have been fully focused on that this week."

Meanwhile, Saracens director of rugby Brendan Venter is urging his side to revive the fighting spirit they displayed in the opening half of the season when they travel to Franklin's Gardens.

Underdogs

"We haven't been good enough and haven't shown the fight that we had in the first half of the season and we need to get that back," said Venter.

"We've really played ourselves into the position as underdogs on Sunday with our form in the past few weeks but that's a position that we don't mind being in."

Ernst Joubert will captain the side from number eight in place of Wikus van Heerden, who is absent with a shoulder injury.

Kas Lealamanua is back in the front row, while Andy Saull also returns to the starting XV.

Carlos Nieto, Hugh Vyvyan, Kevin Barrett and Michael Owen are all sidelined with injury, while Matias Aguero, Rhys Gill, Fabio Ongaro and Steve Borthwick are away on international duty.

Northampton: 15 Bruce Reihana, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Jon Clarke, 12 James Downey, 11 Paul Diggin, 10 Shane Geraghty, 9 Lee Dickson, 1 Soane Tonga'uiha, 2 Brett Sharman, 3 Brian Mujati, 4 Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe, 5 Juandre Kruger, 6 Phil Dowson (c), 7 Neil Best, 8 Roger Wilson.
Replacements: 16 Andy Long, 17 Regardt Dreyer, 18 Jon Vickers, 19 James Cannon, 20 Mark Easter, 21 Alan Dickens, 22 Stephen Myler, 23 Joe Ansbro.

Saracens: 15 Alex Goode, 14 Rodd Penney, 13 Kameli Ratuvou, 12 Brad Barritt, 11 Chris Wyles, 10 Derick Hougaard, 9 Neil de Kock, 1 Kasiano Lealamanua, 2 Schalk Brits, 3 Richard Skuse, 4 Hayden Smith, 5 Mouritz Botha, 6 Jacques Burger, 7 Andy Saull, 8 Ernst Joubert (c).
Replacements: 16 Ethienne Reynecke, 17 Alex Brown, 18 Tom Mercey, 19 Tom Ryder, 20 Justin Melck, 21 Justin Marshall, 22 Glen Jackson, 23 Richard Haughton.