Northampton Saints vs. Western Force Match Preview

Ah! Finally the rugby has come back to Franklin's!!!

After a long and arduous summer of little or no rugby Saint supporters are given a lovely treat right off the bat...

Australians!!!

After weeks of discussing ELVs and touch rugby, or preseason floggings and players favourite biscuits we can finally get down to business, Smurf can take his season ticket out of his safe, St Marlow can see if he can better his record of 4 pints of Guinness during half time and with some trepidation one would imagine Wellsaint and Ajack can dare to venture back into Franklin's Gardens...

And find that the pies are still rubbish.

The saints look to step forward in the new season and prove plenty of people wrong with some new signings and a little more gumption than the team that left the premiership all those awful months ago. It will take time to get going in my opinion but the big question is how we along with everyone will adapt to the ELVs. So this game against a side who have had a year of them under their bellies seems like a smart match and with a couple of astute and wise coaches in charge of the Force the chance to pick brains is upper most in my mind ahead of the performance itself.

Western Force, one of the new and improved Super 14 franchises from Western Australia, Perth to be specific. With many star names such as "pretty boy" Matt Giteau, Ozzie internationals Drew Mitchell, Scott Staniforth and Ryan Cross as well as the big moosey Nathan Sharpe.  The Force are draw from clubs and teams in Western Australia and the surrounding Perth area, with names such as Joondalup, Wanneroo, Kalamunda, former WWE tag team wrestlers the Bushwhackers and the entire nation of Denmark. well thats what it says on their website anyway....

So it begs the question. Why weren't they given a cooler name?

Think about it for a minute, the opportunities for some great alliteration have been horribly squandered.

Off the top of my head, the Perth pistols, the western willywarmers, or better still the western wangchungs....

The western wheelbarrows, the Perth pediatricians, the Perth plumbers, the western Wellington's, oh i could go on and on and on... but the came very close to being the called the black swans? the western black swans? Come on boys, i know thats the state bird but honestly, do think bath would change their name to bath seagulls just cos the place is full of the blooming things?

Now, this is just a bit off fun, a jape, a bit of jokery at the expense of our new Australian friends and we all know what a great sense of humor the Ozzies have.

Mind you, many will know that early on in the franchises rather brief history the were given the nickname the "Western Farce" having notoriously struggled in their debut ( thats pronounced day-byoo not day-boo you uncouth so and so's) season  to get going. That gave the rest or the country time to come up with a witty and ripping mockery that would have Oscar Wilde wetting his pants with jealously.

We are all aware of how much the antipodeans like a pint, and a bet, and a Barbie, and pishpoor daytime dramas. But they come to the Gardens on the back of a very good season and looking to give us all a look at their new talent coming through.  And of course the other thing that Ozzie's like is getting on over on the English.  So while the force are young in heart and mind they are sure to be full of vim and vigor...

Former Sale and England coach Jim Mitchell named the following side...

1 Gareth Hardy

2 Tai McIsaac

3 AJ Whalley

4 Brent Murphy

5 Pat O'Connor

6 Matt Hodgson

7 David Pocock (c)

8 Tamaiti Horua

9 Chris O'Young

10 James O'Connor

11 Haig Sare

12 Scott Daruda

13 Junior Pelesasa

14 Josh Tatupu

15 Dane Haylett-Petty

Reserves

16 Luke Holmes

17 Troy Takiari

18 Valeni Tia Tia

19 Filipe Manu

20 Justin Turner

21 Andrew Barrett

22 Dion Berryman

Now then our beloved Saints are playing this evening against our old friends Nottingham at the bay and then its back down the M1 to face the Force in an early kick off.

As for the teams, its hard to say.

Nottingham have earned our respect from last season pushing us hard on two occasions. Yet my heart says that we should take our neighbors seriously, my head says that the club will want to reward its supporters by putting out as many star names as possible for the opening game of the new season....

So its guess, a total guess but im going with this lineup and fully expect to be wrong...

15 Bruce

14 Asbo Ashton

13 Jonny Clarke

12 Nils Mordt

11 Joe Ansbro

10 King Carlos

9 Lee Dickson

1 Soane Tonga'uiha

2 Paul Shields

3 Barry Stewart

4 Chris Day

5 Alex Rae

6 Neil Best

7 Bluey Lewitt

8 Roger Wilson

16 Dyl Hartley

17 Wee Tam

18 Iggy Lobbe

19 Mark Easter

20 Ben Foden

21 Stephen Myler

22 Digger

but that being said I also expect some of the boys on the bench to make a cameo tonight as well.

So there we go, to the Force, my joking aside, a warm welcome and preemptive apology for the warm beer. i hope they enjoy themselves tomorrow, but obviously not to too much. And to the saints supporters, enjoy the day, lets hope for good weather and be sure to make sure that our new players are made very welcome.

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