By Ian Spokes
August 23 2007

Amidst the fallout of "Cohengate" over the last 24 hours, the fact that Saints have an important match this Saturday seems to have passed us by. Northampton welcome Harlequins to FG this weekend in their final warm-up match before the Saintly assault on ND1. Ian Spokes reads the runes...

 

MATCH PREVIEW

NORTHAMPTON SAINTS vs. HARLEQUINS

Saturday, 26th August, 2007 - 3pm

FRANKLIN'S GARDENS 

 

 

Hurricane Dean hits Franklins Gardens

Oh, how we love to laugh at others’ misfortunes. I have been cajoled into writing this preview by “friends” (and I use the term loosely) who are hoping that I might inadvertently get into trouble by spilling some Quins beans on COYSDC.

The kind of thing they have in mind, I think, is “Quins have yet to announce their starting XV, but this is how they will line up” This to be followed by a phone call from an irate person at the Stoop and profuse apologies from me.

But that’s not going to happen, and anyway this is a friendly match so there is nothing really important at stake. Its always good to win of course, but in these matches performance really does matter more than the result. (I’m getting my excuses in early, just in case)

This game has been on the cards for some time as Quins were talking to both ourselves and Worcester with a view to a pre-season friendly when it became obvious that one of us was going to be relegated. We make ideal pre-season opposition for our multi- coloured friends because we are GP standard (oh yes we are!) but neither team will learn anything of immediate use from the other as we won’t be playing them again until next season (yes, we will be playing them next season!)

Harlequins have more of a pre-season than Saints. They have, of course, already played Samoa at the Stoop, clinching a 22-21 victory with a last minute Mike Brown penalty and they also participated in last week’s Middlesex Sevens, the outcome of which I am sure they would prefer to forget.

Their game against us on Saturday will be followed by home friendlies against Bristol and Connacht. By the time their first premiership game comes along (against London Irish in the Twickenham double header) we will be entertaining Moseley at home in our third game in ND1. Ho hum, let’s not get too depressed.

Last season was pretty good for Quins and, after a slightly shaky start, they secured seventh spot in the GP and a Heineken Cup place. Quins fans can look forward to fixtures against Stade Francais (I’m certainly looking forward to the home tie) not to mention glamorous excursions to Cardiff and Bristol.

Bit of a let down those last two as I am sure that many Harlequins supporters - and their chauffeurs, butlers and footmen - would have already been planning a pleasant trip to south west France or Italy. (I like to keep the old stereotypes going; although I’m told you don’t actually need the income of a hedge fund wunderkind or a Saints CEO to be taken seriously at The Stoop these days)

What of close season ins and outs in TW2?

OUT: Andrew Mehrtens (Toulon, FR) Lorne Ward (Bath) Peter Cook (Cornish Pirates), James Hayter (Llanelli), Jimmy Richards (Neath), Mel Deane (Connacht), Andre Vos (Retired), Gavin Duffy (Connacht), George Harder (Mont De Marsan, FR) Simon Miall (Retired) Luke Sherriff (Nottingham) [indulge me for a moment here; Will Skinner – a genuine number 7 - travels down the M1 from Leicester to Quins, and Luke Sherriff – a genuine number 7 – travels up the M1 from Quins to Nottingham. How did we miss out on those two, both of whom I rate highly?]

IN: De Wet Barry (Stormers, SA) Gary Botha (Blue Bulls, SA) Chris Malone (Bath) Chris Brooker (Bath) John Brooks (Northampton) James Percival (Northampton) Phil Davies (Bayonne)

Overall, and given Quins ability to bring players through from their academy, this looks like good trading to me, with the net result being a better balanced squad with improved quality overall. They are now very strong in the centre with Stuart Abbot, Hal Luscombe and the highly promising Jordan Turner-Hall (another favourite of mine) joined by hard hitter De Wet Barry. The back row is strong and experienced, with genuine competition for places. Personally, I am never totally convinced by their front five; but I’m not always totally convinced by our front five either, come to that.

There are a few “old boy” situations in the two squads. Ian Vass and Karl Rudzki have both played for Harlequins, whereas James Percival sort of played for us last season and John Brooks is a member of the disillusioned, disgruntled and now departed Northampton props contingent.

We might also have witnessed sibling rivalry between the brothers Easter if Nick was not on RWC duty for England.

Others on World Cup duty from Quins are Andy Gomersall (England) Gary Botha (South Africa) and Steve So’oialo (Samoa) and of course we have our own RWC participants in Sean Lamont, Euan Murray and Soane Tonga’huia

Other notable absentees will include Chris Hala’Ufia (broken thumb) David Strettle (metatarsal) Dylan Hartley (ophthalmic indiscretions) and Ben Cohen (toys out of pram); whilst Joe Van Niekirk for Saints and De Wet Barry for Quins are late arrivals. Although Wigan Warriors have released Chris Ashton earlier than expected, I doubt that we will be seeing him against Quins (although Ben’s news this week may prove that this early release is the first lucky break Saints have enjoyed for some time)

Despite these ommissions, both squads have enough depth to provide high quality teams for what should be an entertaining game. Neither side has been announced at the time of writing. This week, Jim Mallinder has indicated that he will select a stronger Saints team than the one that played Samoa and my guess is that Quins will do the same.

And so to the predicted result. We have both played a similar strength Samoa team with selections that were not first choice for either side. Whilst Quins narrowly won and we narrowly lost, the Saints line up was weaker overall. Both sets of coaches announced that they were pleased with the Samoa games (mind you, so did Michael Jones the Samoa coach), so its difficult to draw conclusions.

Difficult, yes - but not impossible if you have a foolproof method. Mine takes into account various factors and data extracted from the two Samoa games; none of which I can reveal. I am, however, delighted to share the answer with you - Saints 108 Harlequins 3 (and there had better be an inquest on that penalty!)

I wish everyone an enjoyable afternoon, some good rugby and no injuries.