By Nick Batley
February 16 2006

Once again, the Sky cameras trundle up the M1 to film an important match between two teams desperately trying to disconnect themselves from the dogfight at the foot of the table.

Northampton and Saracens both sit on 27 points, 7 away from the bottom team, Leeds. Saracens put in an inspired second half performance against fellow relegation candidates Bath, after being 31-3 down at half-time. However, their loss means they have not won in the Premiership since November. Things may be turning a corner soon though. After sacking Steve Diamond for the above losing run, Eddie Jones is touching down in Watford to take over the reins. Or Mike Ruddock. Or Mike Ford. Or…well, we don’t actually know yet. Only time will tell if they can hold on for that long.

 

I should at this point stress that while I have never been a huge fan of Saracens, or rather, I’ve never been a fan of their ground, from when they used to bring on the kicking tee on the back of a toy car, complete with its own theme tune, right down to the ‘Five Minute Mayhem’ during which if the Fezheads get a score, you can go to the Watford Domino’s Pizza and, um, get a pizza which just sickens me (and their excuse for a hot-dog (a hollowed out baguette with an American sausage that doesn’t taste like sausage)), I have liked many of their players. Thomas Castaignede is a great character and a superb player to boot. Why Hugh Vyvyan is not in the England set-up is a mystery to me, and Glen Jackson is a murderous kicker, having scored 252 points from his boot alone, 23 of them against us last October.

 

Meanwhile, the Saints have had a slightly better run of form, remaining unbeaten in 2006 so far. The performance on Sunday against Wasps was overall very good considering the conditions, and we came very close to winning it. Key performances came from Lord, Clarke (his try and his thunderous tackle on Dallaglio), Reihana (as always) and Rudd, who put in an extra good performance. We mustn’t get too cocky though. We are still conceding a lot of penalties and we had a tendency to try and pick and drive the ball a lot on Sunday, which resulted in us dropping it and the very English Mark Van Gisbergen diving over in front of the Travis Perkins Jewson Stand. Of course, Sarries are always a difficult outfit, and at Vicarage Road, their forwards knocked ours off the park, forcing us to resort to penalties, which Glen Jackson happily and enthusiastically converted. We outscored them 3 tries to 1, but they outscored us 28 points to 22.

 

Well, time to have a look at the teams, I think. We’ll start off with the Saints, which is as follows:

 

15 BRUCE REIHANA (cc)
14 SEAN LAMONT
13 Jon Clarke
12 DAVID QUINLAN
11 BEN COHEN
10 CARLOS SPENCER
9 MARK ROBINSON
1 TOM SMITH
2 STEVE THOMPSON (cc)
3 Chris Budgen
4 Damien Browne
5 Matt Lord
6 PAUL TUPAI
7 SAM HARDING
8 Daniel Browne

16 Dylan Hartley
17 Simon Emms
18 DAVID GERARD
19 Darren Fox
20 Johnny Howard
21 Robbie Kydd
22 John Rudd

 

The reintroduction of the internationals will have a major impact on how we play. While Bruce and Rudd played well at 14 and 11 last week, there’s a reason Sean and Ben are international wingers, and I will personally feel more comfortable with Reihana at full-back. However, Rudd’s good performance last week has earned him a spot on the bench. Also, we at least have cover at fly-half, with ‘The Sundance Kydd’ slipping on the number 21 jersey. This match also sees Chicken pick up his 100^th cap for the Saints. He’s been in and out of the 1stXV since he’s arrived here, but he could quite easily keep Barnard out of the team on his current form. I’m also pleased to see Thompson back as we probably need that extra bit of bulk against Visagie. Unfortunately, Lewitt has had to pull out with a haematoma in his right leg, so Harding is at no. 7 and Fox lands on the bench

 

And now, the Saracens team:

 

1 Kevin Yates

2 Matt Cairns

3 Cobus Visagie

4 Simon Raiwalui

5 Kris Chesney

6 Ben Russell

7 Steffon Armitage

8 Ben Skirving

9 Kyran Bracken

10 Glen Jackson

11 Tevita Vaikona

12 Adam Powell

13 Ben Johnston

14 Dan Scarborough

15 Mark Bartholomeusz

16 Shane Byrne

17 Ben Broster

18 Tom Ryder

19 David Seymour

20 Mosese Rauluni

21 Thomas Castaignede

22 Dan Harris

 

A few changes have been made from the team that staged a second-half riot against Bath last week. Castaignede is back into the twenty-two, whereas Byrne and Rauluni are dropped to the bench making way for Cairns and Bracken. Visagie caused havoc in the forwards at Vicarage Road and I am fairly sure he will want to do exactly the same again. Hugh Vyvyan, a great replacement for past Sarries players such as Taine Randell and Francois Pienaar, is missing from the squad, after going off injured last week.

 

In November, we scored two beautiful tries in the first ten minutes, then the Fezhead forwards demolished us. With Tupai and Thompson in for this game, I’m certain the same will not happen again, and as long as we don’t give away any penalties in our half for Jackson to lap up, I can see the Saints winning by 6.

 

Come On You Saints…