Are we nearly there?  Well, as far as the ECC is concerned, we might be depending on the way the team perform this weekend.

Northampton Saints v Bristol Rugby

Saturday, 6^th December 2008

Franklin’s Gardens K.O. 3pm

MATCH PREVIEW

And so we turn our attentions to the third of the five matches we face against Bristol this season.  Having dispatched Bristol at FG 30-17 in the EDF on the first Saturday in October, a contingent of us took the trip to the Memorial Stadium for the away Premiership fixture only to watch a disappointing 14-13 to Bristol on a wet Sunday in November.  This coming Saturday could be a defining moment for Saints in this competition.   Currently sitting top of Pool 2, Saints have the full 10 points from two bonus point wins against Toulon and Montpellier with Bristol trailing well behind with just 4 points from a win against Toulon.

With Montpellier playing hosts to Toulon on Thursday night, the final score of 14-10 gave the win to Montpellier which puts them as our closest rivals on 8 points.  If we can secure the bonus point win this Saturday to put us on 15 points, it will take a mammoth task for any of the three other teams to catch and overtake us to make it to the quarter finals as the pool winners.

Richard Hill has always publicly stated that keeping Bristol in the Premiership is his number one priority and, given the lack of funding to build a bigger squad, we can all understand why he would use the ECC and the EDF to rest some of his more senior players and bloody some of the younger lads.  The last time Hill put out a “weak” side for their clash with Saints at Franklins Gardens, there were 6 Internationals in there.  Add to this Dan Ward-Smith recently coming back into the side and Sean Perry “undoing” the Saints in the second half a few weeks ago, I doubt that it will be a side that is “weak” that takes to the field this Saturday.  Mind you, Mark Regan may well be worn out from appearing on BBC 1’s Question of Sport earlier in the week!

What of the Saints team for this weekend?  I suspect a few of our “automatic” first choice players should be rested this weekend.  Roger Wilson has played his heart out week in, week out.  Euan Murray should rightfully go and bask in the glory he has created from his time with Scotland and “Nacho” Lobbe has to rest that voice of his sometime soon.  However, Dylan Hartley and Scott Gray have both spent a fair amount of time warming the International benches and will be keen to get a full 80 minutes in (although Scott played his full part at Gloucester last week).

With the South Africans unlikely to be registered for this stage of the ECC, I would guess that the team may look a bit like this:

15  Stevie Myler (for his kicking, he needs to be there)

14  Paul Diggin (because there is pure passion there)

13  Neil Starling (he needs to get back in there)

12  James Downey (solid as a rock and who else is there)

11  Bruce Reheina (Captain and should be there)

10  Carlos Spencer (we need to see if the beard is still there)

9    Lee Dickson (he needs to prove that Foden doesn’t need to be in there)

1    Soane Tonga'uiha (needs to prove he should be the first one there)

2    Dylan Hartley (wants to show (for England) he should have been there)

3    Barry Stewart (done that, seen that, been there)

4    Alex Rae (if it hadn’t been for injury, he would have been there)

5    Christian Day (when nicking line-outs last week, he was there)

6    Mark Hopley (is showing that he wants to be there)

7    Scott Gray (he is always there, and here, and there)

8    Rob Milligan (he needs the chance to be there)

Replacements

16  Shields

17  Broster

18  Lobbe

19  Lawes

20  Lewitt

21  Foden

22  Mordt

I doubt this game will be anywhere near a sell-out.  However, most of the season ticket holding masses will be there along with a few others so let’s make a big noise for the boys to urge them on and to ensure we hold onto that 18 month unbeaten home record for another week.

The team will be there.  The Thomson family will be there. 

Will you be there?

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