NORTHAMPTON SAINTS vs SARACENS

LV= Cup (SF): Sunday, 14^th March 2010 - 16:15

FRANKLINS GARDENS

MATCH PREVIEW

Here we go boys ‘n girls. The real business end of the season starts this weekend as Saints host, once again, Saracens in the first of our real knock out matches this season, the semi final of the LV= Cup.

I have a certain affinity with writing either preview or report for our encounters with Sarries which probably extends from the fact I grew up very close to their home town of Watford. So much so that my old Dad often reminds me of the Saturday afternoons he spent on the cinder terraces watching a quite successful Watford FC. Well the spectator enclosures have changed down at Vicarage Road and these days the only top division game played down there is now with the odd shaped ball.

Anyway, Sarries are, for the second year running, pitched against us in the knock out stage of a cup competition and once again they make the trek up the M1 to Piggy’s patch and you can be sure that they will not be looking forward to it given their poor success rate here, our current run of form, our outstanding home record, and their own recent poor run of form. Nevertheless, they will come with a mind to breach the fortress walls as only Saracens of history can.

As we are taking a break from the Premiership, I’ll show the LV Cup some respect and, for the sake of this preview look only at how these two teams made it to this weekend’s game. I must admit that I do this rather selfishly as Saints are the only team in the competition to win all four of their pool games, one of those against Sarries in November last year when we dismissed them at the cost of just a single penalty. Of course, it was becoming clear by then that the biggest weapon in Sarries arsenal was to be their kicking ability, and this was to show its rewards for them in league position and cup competition but against us, well you need to go back as far as 18^th November 2006 for the last time that Saracens came to Franklins Gardens and left with the spoils, quite some time eh?

It is quite surprising that we are playing Sarries in the semi final as their results through the group stages were not very flattering. Their opening game at home against a faltering Bath in early November saw quite a few points scored for both sides, including tries for Richard Haughton and Justin Melck with Glen Jackson slotting everything left for him. That was followed by the trip to FG where the up and coming Alex Goode got their only 3 points in response to tries from Flash and Broooce and an on form Smyler kicking.

The slow to develop Leeds were next on the agenda and suffered to a veritable Sarries try fest with Adam Powell, Schalk Brits, Ernst Joubert and Justin Marshall crossing the whitewash and Derek Hougaard on kicking duty.

Last but not least, Sarries hosted Newport Gwent Dragons in early February in what was a very close game but a loss for the home team 22 points to 23.

So they only won two of their four games, but did manage to get a try bonus and a losing bonus point which pushed them above Tiggers in their group and hence, into the semi’s.

Saints, on the other hand, and as we all should be aware won all four of their games in the pool stages and thoroughly deserve their place as top seed for that reason although we did not get any try bonuses.

We played Ospreys and Sale away, with Tigers and Sarries at home and won each game quite comfortably really, well ok the Ospreys game was tight, but we did seem to dominate in the others and, of course, it’s always nice to beat Tiggs!

I know I shouldn’t be thinking about the LV cup final, but should we win on Sunday, we will be playing the winner of the Gloucester vs Cardiff Blues game which kicks off before ours and you may remember that we have a score to settle with The Blues as they knocked us out of the competition in the semi final last season. Still, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Some other stats:

Top points scorer in this year’s competition:

Stephen Myler 3^rd with 43 points; Glen Jackson 4^th with 34 points.

Best Kickers:

Glen Jackson 2^nd with just over 85%; Stephen Myler 4^th with just over 72%

Top try scorers:

Well, Digger is on this unimpressive list with 2. Sarries don’t appear on this one.

Discipline:

Zero Red Cards throughout the competition this season, two yellow cards for Saints (Neil Best and Jon Vickers) with just one for Sarries (Tom Mercy)

And so to the teams and despite everything else, we are playing here for a place in a final, silverware, and automatic entry onto next season’s Heineken cup competition. As well as that, and although I said I would only talk about the LV= cup, Sarries are right behind us in the premiership so we have a point to prove to them once again. You are not allowed to come to Franklin's Gardens and win!

We should field the strongest team available to us this week in the effort to get a good lead and then rotate as best as only Jim knows how to ensure we keep legs fresh for the final the following week and we are lucky enough to have a very nearly fully fit squad but unfortunately with a couple of guys away on international duty so Jim may try and balance what he has this week knowing that we get these guys back soon.

One big question will be who starts at 10? Both of our options there have had good and bad games. Personally, I would start with Myler as he excels at home but Tin Tin should get a run out anyway so we keep them both match fit. We may be without Foden and Lawes so that will see Bruce at Full Back with Digger and Ashton on the wings.

Dan Vickerman got a run out last week as a replacement for Lawes and the injured Day and he still needs to bed in to the team environment, so assuming his studies aren’t affecting us then he should be on the bench again. Joey Ansbro and James Downey have both proved their weight in gold recently in a strong centre partnership and it will be interesting to see how Tiny plays this week against the team he will be playing for next season. No, seriously I have no doubt that he will, once again put his whole body into the game as he always does.

We certainly have the forward power compared to Sarries, and with a pretty damn good back line, I can’t see us losing this game but Sarries will do their best to stop us.

I think the team will be exactly the same as that which played last week at Sale.

Losing Venter = Saints 30 : 16 Sarries

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