Saints fans: 'Fingernails will be bitten tomorrow'

Friends Marianne Avery and Lis Saunders are both predicting a Saints win

Northampton Saints fans say Saturday's Premiership final will be a nail-biter but they are confident their rugby team will emerge victorious.

Northampton play Bath at Twickenham after seeing off the defending champions, Saracens, in their semi-final.

Coachloads of fans will be making the journey to London early on Saturday morning.

Supporters speaking to the BBC have praised the players for the "exciting" rugby they have played this season.

Marianne Avery and Lis Saunders have followed the Saints for more than 25 years.

Ms Saunders, from Potterspury in Northamptonshire, said: "The standard of rugby has been immense, and, for me as well it's that fellowship on the pitch - this really is a young side - they are so young and so exciting to watch and wear their hearts on their sleeves."

Ms Avery, from Northampton, added: "You can see that they've played together for so long as a cohesive group and they just know where their outside partner is going to be on the pitch and you know when they pass the ball, that there's going to be somebody there."

She predicted a 20-15 final scoreline in the Saints' favour, but Ms Avery thought Bath would get within two points of their rivals.

Heather and Chris Parr said Bath have a strong team and will be very determined

Chris Parr, who has coached the Saints flanker Courtney Lawes, is also taking the coach to Twickenham with his wife, Heather.

Mr Parr said it would be wrong to underestimate the Bath side: "There are some very high quality players who've massively under-achieved for the last few years but they seem to have got it together this year.

"On our day, we should beat them but it's [just] a single game."

Ms Parr said she was anxious because "sport can be very fickle and, while the Saints have been playing some of the best rugby we've ever seen, Bath are going to be very determined to stop Saints winning."

She added that the result will be "tight - fingernails will be bitten tomorrow".

Aurora Smith will be watching the game at her home in Sydney

Aurora Smith will be 10,000 miles away on Saturday, watching the game from Sydney, Australia.

She was a nurse in Northampton before emigrating to the other side of the world.

She said: "My son has knitted me Saints socks, I've never washed them, and a woolly hat - I'll be wearing them tomorrow."