Some time today Jim Mallinder will end the speculation and show how he intends his Northampton to go about beating Munster at Thomond Park tomorrow – a game not just about the Heineken Cup, but also about how a few England and potential England careers are progressing. One cat already seems to be out of the bag.

The big argument has been about who Mallinder starts at outside-half and if you believe his captain Dylan Hartley then it's been settled in Stephen Myler's favour. In a less-than-subtle aside on Wednesday Hartley more or less anointed Myler by saying he felt the 25-year-old controlled the game better than Shane Geraghty.

No diplomatic niceties there, but then again that's the manner of the team. All over the park they have abrasive specimens.

Alongside Harley in the front row there is much sought after loose head, Soane Tonga'uiha, 20 stones of Tongan prop admired in equal measure by Saracens and Saints, who has come on a bundle since looking rather lost a couple of seasons ago when he played on the side of the scrum Euan Murray now commands.

In the second row there is the impressive Juandre Kruger, a Springbok in the making, beckoned home ahead of the World Cup after learning his trade at Franklin's Gardens. Alongside Kruger, Mallinder has the option of Ignacio Fernández Lobbe, hero of Argentina's World Cup squad and a former Mallinder man at Sale, or Courtney Lawes, very much something for England's future if a few things are still to be sorted out.

Lawes, impressive of stature at 6ft 7in and extremely athletic, would look to be a perfect partner for Simon Shaw, but there are suggestions that Lawes is happier in the back row, where he started in January when Northampton were at Thomond for the pool game. And then there's the question of line-out calling because Lawes doesn't and would have to learn.

Jumping in the middle of the line-out is his job and one that can't really be left to the front jumper – something probably near the fore of Martin Johnson's thinking when Lawes was regularly released from the England squad during match weeks.

The mix in the Northampton back row obviously depends on Lawes, but Mallinder will be desperate to have Phil Dowson, one of the buys of the season, fit and well and adding a thoughtful element to the rugged cocktail. Mind you, when looking at value-for-money signings it's hard to look beyond Bruce Reihana and a back three loaded with potential.

Reihana can play at full-back, but that's now reserved for Ben Foden, a player with the X-factor and potentially a long England career ahead. Whether the same goes for Chris Ashton could depend on how he fares tomorrow. We all know that Ashton has the happy knack of scoring tries, but we are less sure of how he copes with the kind of tactical game of which Ronan O'Gara is a master.

There's no one better than the Munster fly-half at picking away at the discomfort of an inexperienced wing, so with the knowledgeable Reihana on one side and Foden at the back having coped well against France, Ashton is likely to be the target of choice, which brings us nicely to the choice of man likely to play opposite O'Gara.

Back in January, Mallinder went with Shane Geraghty after the former London Irish No10 had razzled and dazzled Munster at Franklin's Gardens. The only trouble was that Geraghty, whether by order or inclination, tried to outdo O'Gara with his tactical kicking. The result was a Northampton defeat despite the fine work by the pack while Geraghty appeared to be shunted backwards in the England queue ahead of the Six Nations.

It's a heart and head thing. A couple of weeks ago we went to Franklin's Gardens and Geraghty razzled and dazzled as usual. However at the sharp end of the game Myler came on to land the finest of hastily snatched drop kicks before settling things with a penalty for a six-point win. Cometh the hour...

Conventional wisdom might be that Munster are getting a bit long in the tooth and have suffered a bit from having such a heavy representation with the Lions in South Africa – no team had more – but no one's going to score a hatful of tries at Thomond and if you come away with a win you can bet it will have been hard fought, low on the error count and your kicker will have kicked upwards of 90% of his kicks. At least.