"Always a Gamble" - Northampton stars George Furbank and Ollie Sleightholme return from injury for Champions Cup Final

The Saints take on French titans Bordeaux-Begles in Cardiff, and will be bolstered by the return of the England speedsters. Furbank originally broke his arm back in December, as Northampton hosted the Bulls for a Champions Cup pool stage match. The 14-capped England international was on the injury shelf until April, yet aggravated the injury whilst scoring a try in the Champions Cup quarter-final win over Castres.

Furbank's current on-field stats for 2025 has come solely from the victory over Castres, as he scored a try and bagged two assists in his 52-minute outing. Phil Dowson expressed how bringing Furbank back for the Champions Cup Final is 'a gamble', yet the fullback is showing promise to come back with a bang for the battle with Bordeaux-Begles. Speaking after Northampton's Captain's Run at the Principality Stadium, Dowson said;

"George hasn’t been a mile away. From an arm point of view, he’s had a couple of issues. He’s been getting back into running after a long time away. He’s one of the fortunate ones for who the timing has worked well. He’s worked incredibly hard. The medics have clearly helped him through that. Him and Sleights were delighted in Dublin after that result because they were going to be coming fit at this sort of time."

"It’s always a gamble. Whenever you bring someone back from injury, there’s always a point where they’ve got to hit somebody, make a cover tackle, or go flat out. There’s always a risk there. They were a good 52 minutes. We’re confident he can drop back in from a skills and confidence perspective so that’s one of the reasons we have."

Ollie Sleightholme rolled his ankle in an England training session, and the injury took place ahead of England's Guinness Six Nations match against Wales. Sleightholme was ruled out of the action for 'Super Saturday' in Cardiff, but now, the wing gets his long awaited run-out at the Principality Stadium, after his previous medical report had written off the 25-year-old for the remainder of the season.

"It was really difficult from a medical point of view to put a timeline on it." Dowson explained. "It was to stop me questioning him daily by ruling him out for the rest of the season. These things sometimes happen a bit quicker than planned and that’s obviously a very positive thing. Tom Pearson has probably come fit a week too late which is frustrating for him. We’re fortunate to have those two guys back."

Furbank is expected to have a heavily protected arm for tomorrow afternoon's final, with the tape budget boosted for the fullback's return. Dowson expressed his delight in having the Northampton club captain back in the fold for a season-defining fixture against the Top 14 flyers. When asked what Furbank will bring to such a high-stakes occasion, Dowson said;

"Leadership, quality, experience. We saw that when he came back against Castres, he had two assists and a try. Now he’s a fairly seasoned international and club captain. We all know what a consummate ball player he is. His talent is well documented and hopefully we’ll see that.

"Ideally we want more of the same. I think what was impressive was his ability to drop back into our game plan and still see space and make good decisions. Nothing quite replicates a game but his ability to do that straight off the bat was very impressive."