In cup rugby this season we have won four from four against the cream of Europe, but our domestic form continues to be extremely inconsistent.  In November’s four league matches we won both at home and lost both away, a grim déjà vu for fans who have followed the team in the last few years.

Saracens lie one place below us in the league table, with 21 points to our 26, after the first half of a season which promised so much after a raft of new signings in the summer and a victory over European champions Wasps at Twickenham on the opening day, but which has also seen a home defeat by Leeds and a 40-10 hammering at relegation candidates Harlequins.  Three weeks ago, Leicester took the points in a 21-9 home win over the Fez Boyz.

In the European Challenge Cup Saracens have made it past Bayonne and Overmach Parma to reach a quarter final in January against former European champions Brive.  However, in the domestic tournament they haven’t been very successful since winning the trophy in 1998 against Wasps.  The following season, their defence ended at Kingston Park on a windy February afternoon in the quarter finals, as we overcame a drab first half to triumph 15-0.  Jonny Wilkinson’s penalty in the first half was supplemented with a conversion of one of two Va’aiga Tuigamala tries to send us through to a semi-final at Richmond.

Our team was: S Legg, V Tuigamala, M Shaw, R Andrew, T Underwood, J Wilkinson, G Armstrong, G Graham, R Nesdale, M Hurter, G Archer, H Vyvyan, P Walton (S O’Neill), R Arnold, R Beattie.  Our only other English Cup meeting with Saracens was our very first competitive game with them at Bramley Road in 1985, when the home side triumphed 16-13.

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