NORTHAMPTON SAINTS vs PERPIGNAN

HCC P1, Round 5: Sunday, 17^th January 2010. 15:00

FRANKLINS GARDENS

MATCH PREVIEW

Most of the Guinness Premiership matches last week were called off, in fact all outdoor sports suffered and with the UK suffering the worst winter in decades, for Health & Safety reasons, matches would not go ahead because of fears to the public getting to and from the grounds. With even more snow expected and temperatures not rising much above freezing, there is a distinct threat to this weeks game going ahead, but I’m sure Saints will do all they can, perhaps with some help from us, the supporters, to get it played so be ready for a call to arms on Saturday all of you and maybe I’ll see you on the terraces a day early to sweep the snow away.

Anyway, here we are after a longer than expected break for players and fans and back to action with a very large bump as we welcome the reigning French champions to Piggy’s patch for a crucial match if we are to maintain the pressure and any hope of progression in European Club Rugby’s premier competition this season. But let’s face it folks, we all know that with a good win this week, those of us travelling to the West coast of Ireland next week will go there with an inkling of hope that we may, only just, with luck and with the blessings of whichever deity you place your faith in, that we, Northampton Saints, could have seen off three European reigning league champion teams to get into the HC quarter finals.

In many ways, forget all the other games we have played in this pool, forget that incredible weekend spectacle of what rugby is all about when we welcomed the mighty Munster to FG, and beat them, forget the trip to, a chillier than expected, South of France where we were to be taught a lesson by this weekends guests and forget the weekend to Northern Italy where great efforts were made by both teams to get the match played against the odds. It’s simple, we need to win this match, preferably get a bonus point and head to Ireland for the last pool game in high spirits and beat Munster at Thormond Park five days later! Hey, I like being optimistic and as the Irish Examiner newspaper reminds its readers when they look at their game against Treviso this weekend “Munster would be far better remembering that but for a heroic bit of tracking back by Doug Howlett – despite a torn hamstring – they could have been trailing by 17 points in Thomond Park when the sides last met”.

Our visitors:

Union Sportive Arlequins Perpignan (USAP) are currently sitting pretty in the French Top 14. The reigning league champions are well placed in a close top end of the table with only eight points separating the top five clubs but up until their win against the dark horse that is Racing Metro last weekend, they had a slight blip to their season losing to Brive and Toulose. Their Heineken Cup campaign doesn’t look as good though, they are third in pool one with 6 points after just the one win in four games. Of course we all know what that one win was (ahem!), but with back-to-back loses against Munster and a loss at home at the start of the competition to Benetton Treviso you would think they were out of the running. All indications though suggest that USAP are still keen on, and are still in a position to challenge us for second spot and theoretically, and very dependant on results (Perpignan welcome Treviso at Stade Aime Girral on the same day we play Munster) win the pool! It’s a long shot and will need Munster to not even get a losing BP from their last two games, but hey stranger things have happened.

Their team can boast a number of potential point’s scorers although they appear to be suffering a few injuries at the moment, nevertheless, a wounded animal can fight hard and, depending on how much ball we let them have, we will need to be on our guard. It is understood that USAP management will announce the team to play on Saturday, but certain players to watch out for include French Scrum Half Nicolas Durand who will prove a handful and scored a try against Munster at Thormond Park. With choices of Nicolas Laharrague (109 points in HC career) or Steve Meyer at 10. Jerome Porical at Full Back kicked 19 points against us at Stade Aime Giral, winger Sid Farid can be slippery although other regular winger Maxime Mermoz, is out for a month with a shoulder injury and Philip Burger is currently sick opening the door for other sprinters such as Fijian Samueli Naulu, or Christophe Manas.

Henry (of the Tuilagi clan) will be the expected powerhouse that is so synonymous at No.8, For Lock Forwards throw in an 18 stone Britz, Argentinean Rimas Kairelis who, despite his age, played against us in our previous encounter and has a tally of 30 points in this competition, although none this season, or Olivier Olibeau who scored last weekend as USAP beat Racing Metro.

Front row choices will be between a Pacific Islander, Kisi Pulu, Nicolas Mas is back from a recent sick leave after suffering angina by all accounts and ex Tigers prop Perry Freshwater going head-to-head against our front row. Jerome Schuster, the regular Perpignan No 1, may not appear as he is due to appear before an independent Disciplinary Hearing at Heathrow on Wednesday, 13 January, to answer allegations related to a citing from the round 4 match against Munster where he allegedly used his head on David Leamy in an unsporting like manner.

Team and Game Prediction

Despite our marvellous home record, the injuries being suffered by our visitors, and the chance that they may now have decided that they should concentrate on the league, lets not forget that this team have reached the quarter finals of the HC 4 times, have progressed to the semi’s twice, were runners up in 2003 and have therefore got some good experience of this kind of pressure. As French League Champions they will not simply turn up for their first ever visit to Franklins Gardens, they will want to show us their pedigree, that passion that they are so very proud of in their own stadium in front of the USAP faithful support.

Those of you who made the trip to Stade Aime Giral will undoubtedly remember that they love their rugby. They love winning, they hate losing. They have this common continental trait of showing their disrespect at visiting kickers with whistling and jeering, they love to show their colours of ‘BLOOD and GOLD’, not Red and Yellow, no doubt signifying the struggle against oppression or some such other historical detail. I certainly hope they have a good following with them this week and we allow them the opportunity to spur their team on as they do like to make themselves heard. In response, I want them to hear the deathly silence that is demonstrated by the Saintly faithful to visiting kickers which can be even more intimidating than any noise made but more than that I want them to hear loud and proud ‘Oh Wendy’s’ ringing out around the stadium drowning out their Catalan songs.

I don’t see a great deal of change to the usual team choice this week as we are lucky to have a fully fit squad with two glaringly obvious exceptions. I know I am not alone in hoping that Bruce is back in the squad this week. We have missed something in the last few weeks when it comes to running from deep, clinical finishing and that added stability that, it seems, only he can bring. I realise he won’t be match fit, but if he could come on at 60 minutes, it would be great. Also, due to his religious morals, Euan Murray is not expected to start this Sunday. At least that will keep him uninjured for the trip to Munster and whilst it shouldn’t affect this week’s team sheet, and at the time of writing, we were all waiting with baited breath for the roll call from Mr Johnson that will dictate our availability of players during the Six Nations matches. Still, lets think positive.

15 – Foden

14 – Flash.

13 – Clarkie

12 – Downey

11 – Digger

10 – Smyler

9 – Dickson.

1 – Tiny.

2 – Dylan

3 – Dreyer

4 – Naco

5 – Freddie

6 – Courtney

7 – Dowse.

8 – Sgt Wilson

With Bruce, Shane, Big Bad Bwian, Christian, Besty, Alan Dickens and Chris Mayor getting a run out.

Score:

My heart tells me we will have the edge and I predict a Saints win by 10 points. I just hope it’s with 4 or more tries.

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