West: Corbisiero not guaranteed Saints starting spot

IN ACTION - Alex Corbisiero (second left) carries the fight against Harlequins (picture: Sharon Lucey)

Corbisiero came off the bench to help Saints claim a 30-25 Aviva Premiership victory against Harlequins at Twickenham.

It was the England man’s first match action since injuring shoulder ligaments in the win against Bath at Franklin’s Gardens in September.

Since then, Alex Waller has stepped up once again, with Ethan Waller proving to be an able deputy.

And forwards coach West said: “It’s still early days for Corbs. He played 25 minutes and he did well.

“We just need to make sure we manage the expectations on him so we carry on getting the best out of him.

“We can only be really happy with what Alex and Ethan Waller have done over the past few months, they’ve played well and we’re in a good place.”

And when asked whether Corbisiero could now be expected to dominate the No.1 shirt, West replied: “Definitely not. We’ve got some thinking to do to see who should be playing.

“We’ve got a lot of players knocking on the door who think they should be playing and we’ve got some we think should be playing as well.

“It’s that sort of period of the year where we need to make sure we get the best out of everybody.”