By PelerinStJames
September 4 2014
The new season is finally upon us and it is fitting that the Aviva Premiership Champions, Northampton Saints, get the new term underway, welcoming Gloucester Rugby to Franklin's Gardens under the lights on Friday evening. Esteemed COYSDC contributor, PelerinStJames, looks ahead to the game...
NORTHAMPTON SAINTS vs. GLOUCESTER RUGBY
AP: Friday, 5th September 2014 - 7.45pm (BT)
FRANKLIN'S GARDENS, NORTHAMPTON
MATCH PREVIEW
“JP, I am saying it is on the line, you may award the try.”
So beautiful but so last season! Yes folks, summer is drawing to a close, September has arrived, and that can only mean one thing – the new season starts. Those glorious weekends of May 2014 are now long gone, but as the evenings begin to draw in, there is no doubt that the memories of triumph will burn bright in the minds of us Saintly ones for ever more. However, let us not forget the journey that took us to Twickers. Of course, the destination of winning of the Amlin Cup and Aviva Premiership was the perfect denouement to the story of 2013/2014, but the road there was certainly not an easy one, laced as it was with drama, despair and of decisions against. The final triumphs were based not on that infamous decision for, but on the months if not years of hard bloody slog and graft. For us, the spectator, we can only imagine to work and effort that goes in throughout the club to enable elite performance over the season. And now, once more, we find ourselves ready to board the roller coaster ride that is the Aviva Premiership, full of hope, full of expectation and full of desire that our team, Northampton Saints, will enjoy another season of success and silverware.
Naturally, the competition will be unforgiving, and with the eleven other teams looking to take the Champions scalp, this season promises to be extremely tough and increasingly demanding on all the players involved. Unlike almost every other team, Saints have chosen to minimise recruitment this summer, with only Joel Hodgson and John Fisher arriving, but then of course, the only departures have been GJ van Velze to Worcester, the retirement to the Academy coaching team of a certain Paul Diggin esq. and Rob Verbakel. Player churn at a minimum, and indeed why not? This, after all, is the squad after all that got to the Premiership, Amlin, LV and A League finals last time around. Elsewhere, there has been much movement and strengthening going on, and optimism seems to abound amongst opposition fans across the sportsnetwork boards, each hopeful that a season of success is about to start.
Bath, for example, will be looking to continue their upward trajectory and climb into the top 4 with their young squad developing nicely and boosted by the imminent arrival of Rugby League Sam Burgess, they should not be discounted as contenders. Saracens, on the other hand, have lost their talismanic captain and a Lions Tight head prop, but will be looking to defend their Premiership League Winners status and lift the Brigadoon Cup for the 3rd time in the 3 years it has seemingly been in existence. Up the road at the roundabout, Leicester, who last season finally fulfilled many fans dreams by officially becoming the East Midlands Underdogs, have been very active in the transfer market, recruiting half the Treviso pack, as well as the enigmatic Freddie Burns from Gloucester and Brad Thorn. Quins, like Northampton, will look to develop their youngsters with minimal comings and goings and for me, it will be these 5 teams that contest the top 4 spots and earn the right to be in the play offs next May.
At the bottom end, well, newly arrived London Welsh have signed 26 new players, and led by former Saint Tom May as Captain, will no doubt take a highly positive approach to their return to the Premiership and will certainly pose plenty of problems for their opponents throughout the season. Whether they will survive or not will I suspect depend on how the Falcons adapt to their new all weather pitch and whether London Irish can string together some consistent performances. As for the other sides, well, Wasps, Sale, Exeter and this weeks opponents, Gloucester, will have I feel it will be a battle royale in contesting 6th place and thus entry into the Rugby Champions Cup, with I believe Gloucester just sneaking it.
So what of Gloucester then? Well, they reacted to finishing 9th last time around by signing not just a new Director or Rugby, but a new coaching team, new front row, new half backs and appointing a new captain in BillyTwelvetrees . They have seriously strengthened up front with the arrivals of Hibbard, Afoa, and Tom Palmer; at half back Greig Laidlaw and James Hook come in and will look to provide the platform for the fabled Gloucester backline to perform to their potential. On paper, they certainly look a strong outfit, but it may just take a little time with all the changes for the team to come together. That said, they will come to the Gardens with absolutely nothing to lose playing away to the current Champions, could prove to be very dangerous first opponents. Underestimate them at your peril!
As for the teams, I would expect the line ups to be something like this:
Foden 15 Cook
Pisi K 14 Sharples
Pisi G 13 Trinder
Burrell 12 Twelvetrees
North 11 May
Hooley 10 Hook
Fotuali’I 9 Laidlaw
Corbisiero 1 Wood
Hartley © 2 Hibbard
Ma’afu 3 Afoa
Day 4 Palmer
Lawes 5 Stooke
Clark 6 Kalamafone
Wood 7 Kvesic
Manoa 8 Morgan
For the Saints, It will be interesting to see how young Will Hooley gets on at 10 in place of Myler (assuming Myler remains unfit). As always with injuries, the opportunity arises for another to step in and show what they can do. Other than that, there are tried and tested combinations across the pitch, and I fully expect that the familiarity this continuity provides will be evident even though it is the first game of the season. For Glos, well, it is almost the polar opposite. Their vastly remodelled front tight five and half back combinations will certainly need to hit the ground running. Their skills and talents are certainly not in question, it is a case of how quickly can they bond and settle together. Should the back division get any decent ball, then they certainly have the ability to keep the scoreboard operators busy. No doubt, Franklins Gardens will be in full voice as we look to start the season as we mean to go on with a big fat W. I see no reason for this not to be the case, although the score will be a lot closer than last seasons league placings would indicate, with Saints edging a high scoring game 32 -28.
For this is a new season, and a new beginning. What has gone before, counts for nothing, all 12 teams start equal. Naturally, over the course of the coming months, some will rise, and some will fall as the drama unfolds before us. That, after all, is the beauty and wonder of competitive sport, no one knows what is going to happen. We all have our hopes, we all have our expectations, and we all have our dreams as to where the season will end; you, me and everyone else connected with our great game. Last year, we finally made it over the line by a matter of millimetres and became Champions of England. Now, the journey begins again, so let us hope we can do the same again for this year, but also let us also remember the ups, downs and loop the loops that comprised the journey there.
Buckle in folks, and hang on tight, the ride is about to begin again.
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