{"id":959181,"date":"2026-05-14T11:43:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T11:43:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/959181\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T11:43:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T11:43:19","slug":"northampton-v-bristol-teams-henry-pollock-and-louis-rees-zammit-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/959181\/","title":{"rendered":"Northampton v Bristol teams: Henry Pollock and Louis Rees-Zammit return"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Barbarians<\/a><\/p>\n

Northampton Saints and Bristol Bears have made several changes to their match-day squads this weekend, following defeats last time out.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Table-topping Northampton can book a place in the PREM play-offs with a bonus-point win this weekend, while Bristol can also re-enter the top four should they return to the West Country with the spoils.<\/p>\n

Henry Pollock among Northampton Saints changes<\/p>\n

Saints<\/a> director of rugby Phil Dowson has run the changes in the wake of their 4-17 thrashing at the hands of East Midlands rivals Leicester Tigers, with six fresh faces included in his squad in the form of Elliot Millar Mills, Alex Coles, Ed Prowse, Henry Pollock, Archie McParland and Tom Litchfield.<\/p>\n

Those changes see Dowson keep his same back-three combination from the defeat at Mattioli Woods Welford Road in tact, with captain George Furbank starting alongside Tommy Freeman and George Hendy. Litchfield comes into the midfield in place of Fraser Dingwall, who drops to the bench, with Rory Hutchinson shifting over to inside centre. Recent PREM Rugby Player of the Month winner Fin Smith also gets the nod at 10, partnering the aforementioned McParland in the halves. Alex Mitchell also moves to the bench.<\/p>\n

England star strengthens case for Nations Championship start after scooping major PREM award<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Pollock is the sole change in the back-row, with the British and Irish Lions ace joining Callum Chick and Josh Kemeny. Coles also slots straight into the starting group at lock, joining Ed Prowse in the engine room. Millar Mills also joins Robbie Smith and Emmanuel Iyogun in the front-row.<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as\u00a0a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a>\u00a0for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

Henry Walker, Danilo Fischetti, Luke Green, JJ van der Mescht, Tom Pearson and Sam Graham also join the aforementioned Mitchell and Dingwall on a 6:2 bench.<\/p>\n

Louis Rees-Zammit back for Bristol Bears<\/p>\n

Bristol<\/a>\u00a0boss Pat Lam has also made four changes to his side following their 41-26 defeat to Saracens at Ashton Gate last time out, with Rich Lane, Louis Rees-Zammit, James Williams and Harry Randall all back in the run-on group.<\/p>\n

Lane and Rees-Zammit come straight into the back-three, with Lane at full-back and Rees-Zammit returned to the wing, while Kalaveti Ravouvou keep his spot out wide. Benhard Janse van Rensburg shifts over to outside centre to make room for the retuning Williams, while Tom Jordan starts alongside Randall in the halves.<\/p>\n

There are no changes to the starting pack; however, with Santi Grondona, captain Fitz Harding, Joe Owen, Joe Batley, James Dun, George Kloska, Harry Thacker and Ellis Genge retaining their shirts this weekend.<\/p>\n

England hopeful outlines Test ambitions as \u2018chats\u2019 with coaching staff revealed<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Lam has opted for a 5:3 split on his bench, with Tomas Gwilliam, Jake Woolmore, Max Lahiff, George Taylor and Luka Ivanishvili the forward options and Kieran Marmion, Matias Moroni and Noah Heward the backs.<\/p>\n

Northampton Saints v Bristol Bears teams in full<\/p>\n

Northampton Saints:<\/strong> 15 George Furbank (c), 14 Tommy Freeman, 13 Tom Litchfield, 12 Rory Hutchinson, 11 George Hendy, 10 Fin Smith, 9 Archie McParland, 8 Callum Chick, 7 Henry Pollock, 6 Josh Kemeny, 5 Ed Prowse, 4 Alex Coles, 3 Elliot Millar Mills, 2 Robbie Smith, 1 Emmanuel Iyogun
Replacements:<\/strong> 16 Henry Walker, 17 Danilo Fischetti, 18 Luke Green, 19 JJ van der Mescht, 20 Tom Pearson, 21 Sam Graham, 22 Alex Mitchell, 23 Fraser Dingwall<\/p>\n

Bristol Bears:<\/strong> 15 Rich Lane, 14 Louis Rees-Zammit, 13 Benhard Janse van Rensburg, 12 James Williams, 11 Kalaveti Ravouvou, 10 Tom Jordan, 9 Harry Randall, 8 Santiago Grondona, 7 Fitz Harding (c), 6 Joe Owen, 5 Joe Batley, 4 James Dun, 3 George Kloska, 2 Harry Thacker, 1 Ellis Genge
Replacements:<\/strong> 16 Tomas Gwilliam, 17 Jake Woolmore, 18 Max Lahiff, 19 George Taylor, 20 Luka Ivanishvili, 21 Kieran Marmion, 22 Matias Moroni, 23 Noah Heward<\/p>\n

Venue:<\/b> Franklin\u2019s Gardens
Kick-off:<\/b> 19:45 BST
Referee: <\/b>Luke Pearce
Assistant Referees: <\/b>Sara Cox, John Meredith
TMO:<\/b> David Rose
How to watch:<\/b> Live on TNT Sports 1, HBO Max, TNT Sports Ultimate<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Loose Pass: The \u2018nonsense\u2019 Henry Pollock argument that spells \u2018danger\u2019 and private equity America is coming to England<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Northampton Saints and Bristol Bears have made several changes to their match-day squads this weekend, following defeats last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":959182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,748,393,4884,225,12,10327,6875,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-959181","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-home-page","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-northampton-saints","15":"tag-premiership","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116572756852651238","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/959181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=959181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/959181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/959182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=959181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=959181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=959181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}