Northampton Saints
News: AP: Newcastle Falcons vs Northampton Saints - Preview
By Richard Lindsley
April 13 2011
After Sunday's "Fun in the Sun" down at stadium:Franklins in Milton Keynes, Northampton Saints return to the bread-and-butter of the Aviva Premiership this Friday evening with a trip to Newcastle Falcons. Regular COYSDC contributor St Rich, Joe, Niamh and Sam's Dad, looks ahead to the match at Kingston Park...
NEWCASTLE FALCONS vs. NORTHAMPTON SAINTS
Friday, 15th April 2011 - 7.45pm (ESPN)
KINGSTON PARK
MATCH PREVIEW
This week is a real tester for both sets of coaches as for contrasting reasons they look to shift mindsets for this Friday night fixture. For Saints there is the danger of ‘after the Lord Mayors show.’ Newcastle on the other hand are suddenly in a fight for their lives sitting rock bottom of the Aviva Premiership.
Let’s look our hosts first. The Falcons have always been hard to beat at Kingston Park and in February must have felt they’d done enough to earn yet another year at the top table. A comprehensive win at Leeds put seven points between them and the Tykes Carnegie. This was followed up with back to back wins over Quins, first in the league and then in a thriller of a LV cup semi-final. All was looking rosy until they met Gloucester in the final at our own Franklin’s Gardens. The hammering that day has been followed by another loss to Gloucester at Castle Grim, a loss to the Fez Heads and finally last weekend’s narrow loss to Leeds at home. The net result is they are now one point adrift of the Yorkshire club but perhaps crucially have one game in hand. Coach Alan Tait pointed to fear and nerves costing them the match and so it’s very much squeaky bum time on Tyneside.
Our fortunes are very much the reverse. 2011 was a month ago turning out to be a bit of an annus horribilis. Following six straight league defeats we slumped from 1st to 6th in the premiership table. An apparently shell-shocked Saints headed to Leeds, who had just beaten Irish in Reading, in desperate need of a win. Buoyed by the return of Lee Dickson and Courtney Lawes a fine victory was secured. Then our England quartet returned and it was back to back five pointers against Wasps and Sale. On Sunday at the MK Gardens we were treated to rugby on another level as our bludgeon repelled Ulster’s rapier, or so some romantic reporters would have you believe. Following such a victory in front of 21,000 in that fine stadium, it would be easy to slip into a hangover. There’s also the tricky situation of three away games in eight days with Tuesday’s trip to play off rivals Gloucester and next Saturday’s match at Irish. When and whom to rest becomes the interesting sub plot prior to our HC semi-final with USAP on May 1st. About that, this is what Jim Mallinder will tell the media:
“We will have a look at all the players and choose the side we think gives us the best chance of winning each match. If we play to our potential and take our opportunities we will achieve the results we’re looking for. [insert name here] are a good side and we will need to play well…”
A trip down Memory Lane reminds me that Newcastle once had much grander ambitions. As Rugby Union ‘went open,’ and backed by Sir John Hall’s millions they achieved the thing that has eluded us for so long and won the premiership in 1997/8 (dear stattos if I get any of this wrong it’s because I’m doing it from memory and not looking it up). In a freezing February of 1998 they twice came to the Gardens winning the league match but losing the cup quarter final. Those are two of the best games I have ever seen. Newcastle were hard as nails with players such as Pat Lam, Doddie Weir, Dean Ryan, Alan Tait, John Bentley. They also had the brains of Rob Andrew and the pace of Tony Underwood. Only one team beat them that year – Saints. That was our peak though because Sarries hammered us in the semi-final. Since then Newcastle have lost their financial clout but not their playing pedigree. They have always had good players; think Wilkinson, Walder, Flood, May, (Matthew) Tait etc. Something else they achieved that we didn’t is to win a proper English cup final and I don’t need to look at the archives to know we’ve lost at Kingston Park more times than we’ve won. Handy lads these Geordies, they should never be taken lightly.
The playing connection goes back a long way too. We have shared the likes of Pete Walton and Pat Lam and more recently Sorenson, Dowson and Dickson have made the journey South whilst Euan Murray has headed North. Also in their front row is former Saint Jon Golding. I have a feeling that those two will want to make a big statement on Friday night.
This leads me to our last meeting at FG. The Saints pack pulverised the Falcons. The you tube video of the scrum that started on half way and finished with a penalty on the 22 is a personal favourite. I actually think this may have been the start of our New Year problems. The media would have you believe we reverted to 10 man rugby due to players missing on international duty. I think we were just enjoying it too much. Surely though the Falcons pack will want to redress the balance and I can’t see them being such a pushover at Kingston Park.
Time to guess the teams. For the Falcons, I’ll confess I don’t know enough to suggest possible changes and so will go with the team they put out against Leeds on the presumption that this was their strongest lineup. As we know this is all academic as the coaches will announce their match day squads on Thursday. For Saints I have a feeling that Big Jim will break his routine and shuffle his pack, if that’s not too many metaphors.
Falcons:
Manning
Fielden
Eves
Tu'ipulotu
Tait
Gopperth
Young
Golding
Thompson
Murray
Swinson
Van der Heijden
M. Wilson
Welch
Hogg
Saints:
Reihana
Elliot
Ansbro
Clarke
Diggin
Geraghty
Commins
Waller
Sharman
Mercey
Sorenson
Lawes
Clark
Wood
Easter
Bench – Tiny, Mooj, Dylan, Wilson, Myler, Dickson, Foden
Oh ok, that’s a bit silly but I want to get at least one of the changes right! The truth is we know that Mr Mallinder keeps his cards close to his chest and like I said we’ll know the teams by Thursday lunch time.
As for the result – it’s me – of course I think the Saints will win. I don’t think it will be five pointer though, I expect the Falcons to play as if their lives depend on it and our lads to be a bit slow out of the blocks. There’s no way I can make that sort of away trip so thank goodness for ESPN. Good luck to all travellers and COME ON YOU SAINTS!!!
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Tetleys Block F E143
No alcohol for January. I'm a dryathlete in aid of cancer research.
Dryathlon
Good stuff Mr begatterWe need 5 points - end of - as good as we are, neither Irish nor Glos away are anything other than a titanic scrap
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