Saints and Falcons managed to produce the top two A teams in last season's Northern Conference, and they meet up in the first game of the new season, 5.30 kick off.  Falcons will be looking to improve on their second place and gain a spot in the two legged final in April, a final which the Northampton side (the Wanderers) lost over two legs to an excellent Harlequins side.

The Wanderers won 9 out of 10 last season, only slipping up at home to Rotherham, and has a vast amunt of Premiership experience in it.  It would not be a surprise to see them so close again this time around.

Much of the attention this evening will be on a clash of the outside centres.  There is a lot of hope in Northampton that Andy Vilk, the former Loughborough student, can continue the form of last season when he was the A league top try scorer and eventially found himself challenging for a regular starting spot in the first XV.

Opposite him is Mathew Tait, currently the rising star at the Falcons and who I'm sure will turn out to be the next great white hope of English rugby.  He's impressed in pre-season, and would count himself unlucky not to have been involved at Worcester yesterday.  Tonight's the night for him to impress and I'm sure he will.  The teams, Falcons first:-

15 Ed Burrill
14 Mark Laycock
13 Mathew Tait
12 Adam Dehaty
11 Ollie Philips
10 Stephen Jones
9 Lee Dickson

1 James Isaacson
2 Rob Vickers
3 Ed Kalman
4 Sean Tomes
5 Andy Buist
6 Geoff Parling
7 Ed Williamson
8 Jason Smithson

Replacements:

16 Bradley Hills
17 Peter Phelan
18 Mark Darlington
19 Danny Brown
20 Eni Gesinde
21 Greg Irwin
22 Jamie Rennie

The Wanderers side is as follows:

15 John Clarke

14 Tom Tombleson

13 Andy Vilk

12 Neil Starling

11 Paul Diggin

10 Luke Myring

9 Johnny Howard

1 Brett Sturgess

2 Dan Richmond

3 Chris Budgen

4 Jon Pendlebury

5 Ed O'Donoghue

6 Rob Hunter (capt)

7 Brett McNamee

8 Mark Soden

Replacements

16 Johan van Wyk

17 James Ross

18 Matt Grove

19 Ben Jones

20 Adam Barnard

21 Ben Patston

22 Rhodri Davies

In the equivalent game last season, Wanderers won 40-33 at Bedford, with Falcons coming back from conceding five tries in the first twenty minutes.  I can see it being as high scoring, with the greater experience in the home ranks just being enough to carry the day.

If you're going down to the match, please note that it's on the back pitch at the Gardens - bring sunscreen and a hat!

View a Printer Friendly version of this Story.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon