Bevington, Habberfield and Hassler come into starting XV for Sunday's big Heineken Cup clash at Franklin's Gardens

The Ospreys team to play Northampton Saints at Franklin’s Gardens on Sunday 20th October, KO 12.45pm, is as follows:

15 Richard Fussell

14 Jeff Hassler

13 Andrew Bishop

12 Ashley Beck

11 Eli Walker

10 Dan Biggar

9 Tom Habberfield

1 Ryan Bevington

2 Richard Hibbard

3 Adam Jones

4 Alun Wyn Jones (Capt)

5 James King

6 Ryan Jones

7 Justin Tipuric

8 Joe Bearman

REPLACEMENTS

16 Scott Baldwin

17 Duncan Jones

18 Aaron Jarvis

19 Tyler Ardron

20 Morgan Allen

21 Sam Lewis

22 Tito Tebaldi

23 Matthew Morgan

Jeff Hassler makes his first Heineken Cup start

Head Coach Steve Tandy said:

“This is a big game for us, one that everybody in the camp is really looking forward to. We didn’t do ourselves justice at the Liberty on Saturday, we had the third biggest Heineken Cup crowd of the weekend and it’s disappointing that we weren’t able to reward such a big turnout with a good performance.

“We are well aware that we need to make some big improvements if we are going to put in the kind of performance at Northampton that we need. They are in the same boat as us having also lost their first game, so no doubt there’ll be a tension and edge to the game. This is a very difficult group but there’s still everything to play for and there’s going to be plenty of twists and turns. We can’t worry about what the other teams in the group do, we’ve got to fight all the way and make sure we put ourselves in a position to take advantage of the twists and turns. We have to show what we are about on Sunday.

“It’s going to be a big test of character and attitude, how this group reacts to a setback, but we know enough about them to realise that we have big-game players in the squad, individuals who are used to pressure situations and it will be up to them to lead by example on Sunday. It’ll be a great contest, and we’ll have to front up to a big, physical team, but that’s an exciting prospect.”

The following players were unavailable for selection through injury:

Dmitri Arhip – Achilles

Dan Baker - Shoulder

Hanno Dirksen – Knee

Ian Evans - Achilles

Ben John - Hip

Tom Smith - Knee

Rhys Webb - Knee

Forthcoming Fixtures

Fri 25 Oct 19.05 KO – Ospreys v Newport Gwent Dragons – RaboDirect PRO12

Sat 02 Nov 19.15 KO – Munster v Ospreys – RaboDirect PRO12

Fri 08 Nov 19.45 KO – Leicester Tigers v Ospreys – LV= Cup