BATH RUGBY vs. NORTHAMPTON SAINTS

GP: Tuesday 20 April, 2010 – 8pm

THE RECREATION GROUND

MATCH PREVIEW

Take One. Well, on short notice, here's the preview for Bath at home. What? Someone else is doing it? Oh, OK...

Take Two. Right. Bath away... here we go. Assuming that Bath are able to get a giant hair dryer (or the good Doctor, either works), then this weekend sees the Saints travel to the southwest. Hm? Cancelled? Dr V didn't go down south west? Fine.

Take Three. Bath away. Are we going? Really? We are? OK! Preview time!

It seems that this year is a reversal of fortunes for both clubs. Saints are riding high in the Premiership table, rather than floating around in the middle somewhere. Bath, traditionally one of the dominant clubs, can't have been helped with the end of last season's shenanigans. In fact, Bath seem more of a light shower this year, languishing dangerously close to the foot of the table, but now having an end of season revival which has seen them climb up to 6th.

This game is the middle of 3 in a week for both sides, and is equally important to both of them. A win for Saints almost gives the home semi final (play off place being secured against Gloucester), and a win for Bath really secures a HC place for next year.

Attacking

Bath have won nine games so far this campaign. They've drawn two, Tiggs and Wuss, and garnered 7 bonus points, 4 for being within seven points, and 3 for scoring tries. If the original Bath away game had gone ahead, at that point they hadn't had any attacking BPs. So far this season, Bath have  scored 33 tries, fifth overall behind Saints..

Saints, on the other hand, have won fifteen, boast over forty more points in the points for column than Bath, and have two players in the top 10 try scorers (yes, JC is tied 9th on 4 tries, but I'm not complaining – Ashton is clear top!). However, since the Bath post-winter resurgence, Saints have dropped from being top of tries scored to only having scored one more than Bath.

Dee-fence (ra! ra! ra!)

Sorry... too much time in the States!

Defensively, Bath make 90% of their tackles, but are sitting last in terms of both number of tackles made, and attempted. Their lineout could be an area for Nobby and the forwards to target, as Bath have lost 43 so far. Finally, the Bath defence have conceded 241 turnovers... Get the forwards in quick, and we should get some good ball for the backs to play with! Admittedly, 241 is nowhere near the 260 turnovers by Gloucester!

Actually, Bath are slightly better than Saints at tackling – our percentage stands at just under 88%. Perhaps our most worrying defensive stat is that we are currently 5th in the league for rucks lost, with 34 compared to Bath's 24.

The game

And so to the game. The last 5 games by each team looks like this. Bath are W W W L W in the league. And this is the bit I like – in the league the Saints are W W W W W. Our last loss in the league was back in February away in the poor showing against Quins. On form, it says that it should be a Saints win, just, as Bath are on a bit of a run at the moment. We still have to give them some consideration. Just look how close they ran us at the Gardens. We can't afford to write off Bath as an easy game. Just because we are nearly top (wow, didn't think I'd write that), doesn't mean they won't be a stern test.

The teams have already been announced by both sides, and are:

NORTHAMPTON SAINTS

15 Barry Everitt
14 Paul Diggin
13 Joe Ansbro
12 Jon Clarke
11 Bruce Reihana
10 Shane Geraghty
9 Alan Dickens
1 Regardt Dreyer
2 Brett Sharman
3 Brian Mujati
4 Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe (capt)
5 James Cannon
6 Mark Easter
7 Neil Best
8 Mark Hopley

BATH RUGBY

15. Nick Abendanon
14. Joe Maddock

13. Shontayne Hape
12. Olly Barkley
11. Michael Stephenson
10. Nicky Little
9. Michael Claassens (c)
1. David Barnes
2. Lee Mears
3. David Wilson
4. Danny Grewcock
5. Stuart Hooper
6. Ben Skirving
7. Julian Salvi
8. Luke Watson

A prediction? Not on your life! I'd like to say Saints by more than 7, but in reality, I think it could be a lot closer than that. I'm just hoping that it's not as close as Bath at the Gardens...

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