Sale Sharks v Northampton Saints: Full team news for Friday's clash

James has played 94 times so far for Saints, with all of his appearances coming in his traditional scrum-half role.

But with Fin Smith needing to be rested so he can face Clermont Auvergne in the Investec Champions Cup round of 16 next Friday and injuries to George Furbank, George Makepeace-Cubitt, Rory Hutchinson and Charlie Savala, Saints are out of options at 10.

James was a strong place kicker during his days at Loughborough Students in National League One and will take on those duties in the must-win match against Sale.

Alex Mitchell returns after being rested so he wears the No.9 shirt while Tommy Freeman is also back from his post-Six Nations break and starts on the wing.

Burger Odendaal will start for the first time since suffering a knee injury in last season’s Premiership final, lining up alongside Fraser Dingwall, who is the Saints skipper.

Henry Pollock, who produced a typically energetic cameo from the bench in the 33-0 defeat to Leicester Tigers last Friday, starts at No.8, with Juarno Augustus among the replacements.

Tom Pearson also drops to the bench as Angus Scott-Young comes in at seven.

There is a fresh second-row pairing this week with Chunya Munga and Alex Coles starting in place of Temo Mayanavanua and Tom Lockett.

Tom Litchfield gets a spot on the bench.

Furbank, Hutchinson, Makepeace-Cubitt, Savala, Emeka Atuanya, Sam Graham, Archie McParland, Toby Thame, Ollie Sleightholme and Robbie Smith are on a lengthy unavailable list.

England internationals Luke Cowan-Dickie and Tom Curry return to start for Sale on Friday night.

Sam Bedlow comes in at centre in the only other change to the team that won at Newcastle Falcons last weekend.

Sale Sharks: 15. Joe Carpenter; 14. Tom Roebuck, 13. Rob du Preez (c), 12. Sam Bedlow, 11. Tom O’Flaherty; 10. George Ford 9. Gus Warr; 1. Bevan Rodd, 2. Luke Cowan-Dickie, 3. Asher Opoku-Fordjour; 4. Ben Bamber, 5. Jonny Hill; 6. Ernst van Rhyn, 7. Tom Curry, 8. JL du Preez.  

Replacements: 16. Tadgh McElroy, 17. Si McIntyre, 18. WillGriff John, 19. Hyron Andrews, 20. Sam Dugdale, 21. Nye Thomas, 22. Will Addison, 23. Arron Reed.

Saints: 15. James Ramm; 14. Tommy Freeman, 13. Burger Odendaal, 12. Fraser Dingwall (c), 11. George Hendy; 10. Tom James, 9. Alex Mitchell; 1. Emmanuel Iyogun, 2. Curtis Langdon, 3. Trevor Davison; 4. Chunya Munga, 5. Alex Coles; 6. Josh Kemeny, 7. Angus Scott-Young, 8. Henry Pollock.

Replacements: 16. Henry Walker, 17. Tarek Haffar, 18. Luke Green, 19. Temo Mayanavanua, 20. Juarno Augustus, 21. Tom Pearson, 22. Jonny Weimann, 23. Tom Litchfield.