Or will it be a success if we only half fill the place (which means 45,000 people), make a loss (how much is it costing to market this, let alone rent the stadium and hire the supporting acts?) but lay on a thrilling match that makes people remember the day and want to come and see Saracens again? 

I am looking forward to the appearance of Right Said Fred. Personally, I had initial doubts about the new “Anthem”, because my abiding memory of football team songs is that they are dire, not to say excruciatingly painful to listen to. “Stand Up” is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but I like it, and the video on STV of the squad recording it is excellent and shows everyone in the squad having a lot of fun, not to mention Right Said Fred. So far, then, a resounding success in my book, and if it gets us singing something other than “Sarries, Sarries”, it will be a huge improvement.  

One of my objections to the usual chant is that it is not always easy to distinguish it from the chants of our opponents, so we could be cheering both sides! We also need (IMHO) to make more of “Allez les Noirs”, and indeed a general increase in singing would have a big effect on the atmosphere at VR. Indeed, I was very impressed indeed at the amount (and high quality) of noise made by the Viadana supporters last season. 

What else is on? Oh yes, Diversity. Well, I am looking forward to seeing them, possibly in a dance off (battle of the dancers?) with newly blonde Amy and her Sensations All good family entertainment, and hopefully the atmosphere is building. 

And camel racing! I believe that this is a very serious sport in the Middle East, and I look forward to seeing something rather more realistic than the version I remember seeing once, possibly in the Olympia horse show quite a lot of years ago. I saw mention, too, of the Royal Marines doing a display, and a half time tug of war match.

As if you needed any further incentive to be there, I am reliably informed that there will be a rugby match taking place. 

At the time of writing, the teams have not been announced, and I for one am waiting with great interest to see if (and how) The Doctor rotates his squad from last week. He has made the point strongly that players cannot play in all the 40 matches that he hopes they will contest, so how does he intend to implement this? One guess would be to swap Adam Powell for Brad Barritt, my logic being a) that The Doctor has said he cannot separate them in terms of ability, they are equally good, and b) that I think Brad took a bit of a knock last week. But will this be applied to all positions, or just a few in each game?  

The most vulnerable element last week looked the scrum, and if the impressive Soane Tonga’uiha plays at Loosehead, Nieto or his alternate will certainly have a tough day at the office. I wonder if Ongaro will replace Brits, and if so, what that will do for the scrum? I take the witterings from South Africa with a large pinch of salt, but the view has been expressed that Schalk Brits is a weak scrummager…. but he is astonishingly quick around the park. I hope and believe (fingers crossed etc) that Cobus, formerly perhaps the best Tighthead prop in the world, now turned scrum coach, can sort things out in his department. 

Of course, hooker is also where the pantomime-villain-turned-captain JRR Hartley resides. I’m sure that Ongaro will remember his sending off at the Garden in the ERC semi-final, and I don’t see Schalk Brits as the next Henry Kissinger, so it will be interesting to see whether sparks fly (and even more fascinating to see who, if anyone, keeps their cool). 

The battle of the back rows will be well worth watching, with last week’s Sarries team of Wikus van Heerden, Andy Saull and Ernst Joubert looking good (although I would play Michael Owen at 8 if fit) and Saints fielding a starting lineup of Dowson, Best and Wilson, definitely not to be taken lightly. 

Glen Jackson was deservedly Man of the Match last week and looked at his sharpest, but will we see Derrick Hougaard start this week? I would be nervous of doing that, personally, and would prefer to see him come on as a more-or-less regular substitute so that the team has the opportunity to get accustomed to him and vice versa. Myler went off with a knock last week, so perhaps we shall see Geraghty start at 10 for Northampton.  

Another contest well worth watching will be the back 3. Last week, Saints fielded Foden at 15, with Diggen and Bruce Bruce Bruce Reihaner on the wings, and we had Goode (the Alex variety), Wyles and Cato. Both Foden and Goode are electric and have England potential so it should be a great opportunity to compare and contrast. 

At this point in a preview, I usually take a punt at predicting the result. In my view, this is more difficult not knowing the teams selected, but connoisseurs of my predictions may suspect that ignorance will actually improve my success rate.

Saints found themselves 17-0 down to Worcester last week, and came past them for a narrow win, so it looks as if they may be maintaining their record of last season of playing a poor first half and making up for it in the second. They are a settled and impressive outfit, and I tip them to finish close to the top of the Premiership, but I think we will lead at half time. We need to keep cooler heads in the second half than we did last week, when we gave away penalty after penalty and hardly used the ball at all, because I see Saints coming back strongly in the second half. I back Sarries to win by 2 points in a nail-biting finish. 

Footnote 1: Remember the old joke, a tourist asks a New York policemen “How do I get to Carnegie Hall?” and the reply comes back, “Lady, you gotta practice!” Moral: anyone can go to Wembley if they pay enough, but for it all to be worth while, we need to see a great rugby match. 

Footnote 2: To please the doyen of the Casbah Chronicles, I have included no less than 8 hyphens. J (Would have been 9 if the spell checker hadn’t refused to allow me to hyphenate New York). 

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