It was on that magical afternoon in May 2003 when we beat the Fez Boyz to stay in the Premiership that we last triumphed over Saracens, and since then we have lost and drawn at KP, and lost thrice at Vicarage Road including a poor 27-18 defeat in November which was more emphatic than the scoreline suggests.  Although we scored three tries through Joe Shaw, James Hoyle and Matthew Burke (who also kicked a penalty), but Saracens dominated the game and two Richard Haughton tries and a try, three conversions and two penalties from fly-half Glen Jackson.

One notable fact from the game is that we started with 14 Englishmen in the team, and ended with a full English side (as well as Jason Smithson making his first senior start).  Our team was:

M Burke © (M Wilkinson), T May, M Tait, T Flood, J Hoyle, D Walder (J Shaw), J Grindal (L Dickson), M Ward, A Long, R Morris (D Wilson), A Perry, G Parling (A Buist), M McCarthy, B Woods (D Wilson-T), J Smithson.

What will hopefully make the difference on Saturday to November is the fact that we now have a more settled and combative pack of forwards, which is an absolute must against a powerful side like Saracens who can on their day boast a pack containing the likes of Kevin Yates, Iain Fullarton, captain Vyvyan, Richard Hill, Shane Byrne, Nick Lloyd, Simon Raiwalui and Taine Randell.  In addition to this, pacy and skilled backs such as Dan Scarborough, Nicki Little, Dan Harris, Mark Bartholomeusz, World Cup winner Kyran Bracken, Thomas Castaignede, Ben Johnston, Kevin Sorrell and Richard Haughton, our defence will have to be well organised to keep out the black attack.

We will also be helped by Saracens perennial injury problems, which still include Andy Farrell and England World Cup star Richard Hill.  Not that we have a clear treatment table ourselves – still the lack of Cory Harris (concussion) and Jonny Wilkinson.

Basically, this is the kind of game we will always find difficult as long as our forwards, although improved, are still inconsistent, and our backs also haven’t had the best of times in the last couple of league games.  We have lost only one game since losing at Saracens though, so with a bit of form and with good performances, and home advantage, this must be a game we are looking to win.

The Falcons team, as announced this afternoon, see the return of Anthony Elliott and Geoff Parling:-

15 Matthew Burke

14 Tom May

13 Mathew Tait

12 Jamie Noon

11 Anthony Elliott

10 Dave Walder

9 James Grindal

1 Micky Ward

2 Andy Long

3 Robbie Morris

4 Andy Perry

5 Stuart Grimes

6 Owen Finegan

7 Ben Woods

8 Colin Charvis (captain)

Replacements:

David Wilson

Matt Thompson

Luke Gross

Andy Buist

Geoff Parling

Hall Charlton

Toby Flood

No Sarries team as yet, but then Steve Diamond’s tendency is to announce on Fridays.  We shall wait and see…

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