By Mark H
November 20 2003

There’s a big game on Saturday, but unlike the warm up event that’s going on in Sydney, those of a Saintly persuasion will be hoping that it’s an Australian number ten that is kicking his team to victory. (Okay, apologies to those who don’t want England to win, that’s the last I’ll mention of it. Apart from a bit at the end. Promise.)

Saints look to get the wheels back on the hat after the Bath capitulation when Leeds Tykes come down the M1 to try and take the points back with them. A Saints win will guarantee a top three spot at the end of the World Cup; a loss and it’s back into the pack.

Just for a change, I’ll focus on our lot first. He Who Knows Best has made two personnel changes, with the return of Tom Smith and Grant Seely, but a number of positional changes, including switching the centres around, moving Robbie Morris across the front row, and putting mark Connors into the second row. The squad as announced on Wednesday is:-

15 Nick Beal
14 James Brooks
13 John Leslie (c)
12 Chris Hyndman
11 Bruce Reihana
10 Shane Drahm
9 Johnny Howard
1 Tom Smith
2 Dan Richmond
3 Robbie Morris
4 Matt Lord
5 Mark Connors
6 Andrew Blowers
7 Darren Fox
8 Grant Seely

Replacements from: Matt Miles, John Golding, Chris Budgen, Jon Phillips, Rob Hunter, Ben Jones, Oriol Ripol, Mark Tucker, Jon Sleightholme, John Clarke.

Is it a shake up of certain players, tactical changes, covering injuries and fatigue, or a combination of all three? To me it does seem like a team picked to win one match (as it should be), but there is definitely a sense of trying to do things differently after having 85 points in the against column over the last two Saturdays. It might be a good question to ask Wayne and Rats at the First XV briefing after the game.

The Tykes come south on the back of an impressive win over high flying Harlequins in the Powergen Cup, but in general their season has been very up and down after the big season they had last time around. Those 22 performances took them into the Heineken Cup for the first time, and they were rewarded with ties against the Neath-Swansea Ospreys, Edinburgh, and the champions themselves, Toulouse. They may not win the group, but they certainly have a chance of getting the second spot, and depending upon results elsewhere, that may be enough to get them into the quarter finals.

Whatever they do, it won’t be for a lack of inspiration. Phil Davies has done a terrific job in first getting them into the ZP, then into Europe, and most importantly of all, established in the upper echelon of English rugby. They’re another team, like Bath last week, who have had a high turnover of personnel in the summer, but have made some intriguing signings to replace the likes of George Harder, Zak Fea’unati, Cammie Mather and Braam van Straaten, all of whom headed elsewhere in the summer.

Somewhat ironically with Llanelli being first on Saints’ own Heineken adventure, the first of the Leeds signings was a man who featured heavily in THAT semi-final three and a half years ago. Matt Cardey, now shorn of most of the flowing ginger locks that made him so recognisable back then, has fitted comfortably into the Tykes back line and played at full back in that cup win versus Quins. Pace seems to be a feature of the back line; indeed, with last week’s line up also featuring Phil Christophers (alternating between wing and centre this season), their try machine of the last two years Dan Scarbrough, the bullocking runs of Liam Botham, and the sheer speed and trickery of Diego Albanese, you can see that there are match winners from every position. Add to this the likelihood of David Rees (arguably their best player so far this season) coming off the bench, and you’ve really got a handful.

I anticipate Botham missing out this time around, as yet another signing makes his debut, in the form of ex-Natal man Andre Snyman. Snyman is the most capped (36) South African centre, and will bring experience to go with the freshness of his colleagues. Like most of the Leeds supporters, I’m looking forward to seeing what impact he will have in the ZP.

I’m also looking forward to seeing Albanese again; apparently one of the nicest people, let alone rugby players, in the world (source: an un-named friend!), he always seems to have a few tricks up his sleeve, tackles well above his weight and build, and puts everything into the game. He didn’t make the sort of impact on the World Cup that he’d have hoped, but one thing’s for sure; if he doesn’t have an impact on the ZP, then it won’t be for the want of trying.

The half backs will apparently (according to Tykes’ official site) be Gordon Ross (another World Cup returnee), in place of Duncan Hodge, and Clive Stuart-Smith, who’s made a big impact since coming out of Andy Gomersall’s shadow at Gloucester in the summer.

The Leeds pack, it would not be unkind to say, is not full of stars, but one of honest pros who know what they’re doing and have been doing it for years - certainly in the case of captain Mike Shelley, a Leeds man through and through and still as influential at prop as he ever has been. He will certainly give Robbie Morris a tough afternoon. James Ponton at openside is another who has been an outstanding season, and he has been joined at blindside by Aaron Persico, fresh (if anyone can call 4 games in 14 games freshening) from Italy’s campaign in Australia. With Dan Hyde, one of Tykes’ better performers over the last two seasons, recovering from injury but likely to feature in some form, they are a unit that must not be underestimated.

Looking at pure results, everything points towards Saints. Leeds have lost their last three league games, the last victory being 39-18 over Leicester, and they’ve also lost all four of their away league games so far this season. Currently at the top of the triumverate containing Leicester and Sarries, they will be determined not to finish eleventh, and have the fingers pointing “well, if it wasn’t for Rotherham…”. However, questions still remain on how the last two weeks have affected Saints both as a team and as individuals. In theory, four players could be coming into next week’s side (if chosen); perhaps the need to play for places may have a positive effect on our boys.

Further proof of a different attitude to last season is the fact that they have picked up 3 try scoring bonus points already, and like Saints, have had a total of 49 tries in their nine games so far. They’ve also only received one yellow card this season, in contrast to the 7 received by Saints (plus of course, Sharky’s red). They have, however, had Colm Rigney suspended for nine weeks for allegedly stamping on Phil Greening on the second weekend of the season. Having seen the video of the incident, let’s just say that he was unlucky to get that length of ban; indeed, Greening was actually penalised for being on the wrong side.

So, two high scoring teams who play good rugby, and who both need the points for differing reasons. I thought that when Leeds came down for the last league game of last season that they froze in front of a big crowd and with the incentive of automatic European qualification. I can’t see them freezing again, in front of what will be a smaller crowd with, I’m afraid to say, some of the intensity left in the bars. Saints to win a relatively low scoring game, but Leeds to get closer than a lot of people think they will.

And finally - if you’re coming on Saturday after watching the other game, bring your voices use them in the same way that you would normally, as we don‘t want a repeat of the first half of the Newcastle match. In the morning, you’re shouting at a TV screen. They can’t hear you. In the afternoon, 15 green shirted heroes will need you shouting for them. They can hear you. They can be influenced by you. You decide where your energies should lie…