Mitchell Says Two-Week Break Suits Leicester Tigers Derby
Alex Mitchell says the two-week break arrived at the right time for leicester tigers week, with Northampton Saints heading into Saturday's East Midlands derby away from home. The Prem leaders go there with four regular-season games left and a first-versus-third meeting that could sharpen the race into the play-offs.
Mitchell on Northampton Saints
"We've got four games of the regular season, then we're into the play-offs, so it was perfect timing for us," Mitchell said to Radio Northampton's Saints Show. He added that Northampton were still collecting results while leaving too much unfinished on the pitch.
"We're getting the results, we're getting five points but our performances aren't always there [of late], we're not getting 80 minutes on the pitch which can be a bit frustrating," he said. "We know we're getting to crunch time in the season with some quality games coming up and that we need to step it up."
Archie McParland Cover
Mitchell has only been back in the side since 10 April, when he returned as a replacement in Northampton's European Champions Cup quarter-final defeat by Bath. He then started the last two games against Exeter and Bath, before being withdrawn after 50 minutes and 55 minutes.
The England scrum-half has scored four tries in 13 games for Northampton this season, but his route back has been slower than a regular start-list suggests. He missed seven, eight weeks after suffering a hamstring injury during the Six Nations in February, and said the adjustment to different moves and different players took time.
Archie McParland filled in during that spell and started five straight games for Saints while Mitchell was away. Mitchell said the 21-year-old had impressed him and had become his chief understudy, a useful cover piece as Northampton move toward the end of the campaign.
Mitchell said he was in a good place and would be pushing on to the end of the season, a timely assessment with Northampton already into the stretch that follows the derby. They won the title in 2024, have lost only once in the league in 2025-26, and now go into the away match as the league's first-placed side against third on Saturday at 15:05 BST.
