Northampton director of rugby Jim Mallinder has mounted a strong defence of English club rugby on the eve of Saturday's Aviva Premiership title showdown with Saracens.

England's World Cup performance is being reviewed by the Rugby Football Union after the hosts failed to make it past the pool stage, with the futures of head coach Stuart Lancaster and his coaching assistants far from certain.

The remit for the inquest is confined to the national set-up, however, with the elite club game spared closer inspection even though the lack of world class players being produced for the Test arena has been highlighted.

Thirteen England internationals will be starting when Northampton and Saracens collide at Franklin's Gardens and Mallinder believes the gloom that has drifted from Twickenham to the Premiership is misplaced.

"You always have to review things and make change and that is happening, but we don't need a root and branch review of the game," said Mallinder, whose team have lost two of their opening three matches.

"We have a cracking product and shouldn't criticise it too soon and easily. We have good players and good coaches. We need to be a little more positive about where we are."

Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall also refuses to subscribe to the view English rugby is broken, pointing to the fact that Stuart Lancaster's men led Wales 22-12 in their pivotal World Cup group match.

Instead, McCall has added his voice to the growing chorus of concern over player welfare as a brutal campaign that ends in a summer tour to Australia continues to unfold.

"This season is unique because of the home World Cup and it opens up the debate about the structure. The southern hemisphere season certainly makes more sense," McCall said.

"We've used 33 players in our first three Premiership game so far. The squad we've selected for Northampton will take that to 34 in four games and we think that's an absolute necessity given the demanding schedule.

"We need to spread the load as much as we can and try to be as competitive as possible in every game. We can't afford to overplay players and it's not straight forward to make sure people are fresh, enthusiastic and physically improving when you have this schedule.

"People have forgotten that the Premiership will run during the Six Nations, so that will be nine consecutive league matches."