By Broonie
March 31 2006

The continuing saga of the biggest love-in since Woodstock is about to have its fourth reprise this season – any more and people are going to start to talk  

The usual horde of noisy warriors , all in blue and gold , will lay siege to Franklins Gardens this Saturday , setting out on their march from the world capital of multicoloured mugs ( bone china ones of course). Led by a tall dark moustachioed descendant of Alaric the Visigoth complete with an exceedingly silly helmet (going by the acronym “JP”) these invaders will attempt to shout down the walls of fortress Franklins as they have done once this year and once last year. They were also our hosts at the game of horror at the end of last season , when both sides were playing for their top division places , and many saints fans will remember how supportive they were in those minutes before harlequins managed to snatch a season in ND1 out of the jaws of victory , and how both sets of supporters, not to mention some members of the coaching staff ,celebrated after.

There may even be the risk of forgetting there’s a game of rugby going on as well, for which, come to think of it, I’ve promised a review , so here goes …

Worcester have had a disappointing second half to the season , after an excellent start which saw them flying high in the Premiership. Since Boxing Day their league results have been L L L W L L L W L with a yield of 9 points. Why? The loyal fans have been torturing themselves that the results may reflect a lack of desire among the squad or disaffection with the coaches. From the outside it looks a bit more likely that they are having a run of injuries to precisely those players they could least afford to have injured. In marketing terms their Unique Selling Point last year was an awesome pack, with a dominant scrummage and lineout. In that pack , everyone pulled their weight, but the locks , tight head and pat sanderson in the back row were genuine candidates for a league eclectic pack.

This year they have had to do without Chris Horsman (aka The Horse) a candidate for the best tighthead prop in world rugby for the second half of the season , to permit ankle surgery. In the second row, Craig Gillies continues to be the best lineout lock in the country and do his shift at the coalface too, but their huge tractor , Tim Collier, seems to be struggling with injury and perhaps his career. He’s an enormous man who is a gym addict and may have overdeveloped his body to the point where it’s gone beyond being useful for rugby. He was awesome last year, but has been mostly injured this year, and too heavy to lift by non-mechanised means. And Pat Sanderson, vital as the most complete back row in England as well as an inspirational captain , has had lengthy injury absences at just the wrong times for his club. The squad hasn’t quite had the depth to take up the slack. For a few weeks after the injury cracks appeared the pack got away on reputation, but gradually , as always in the premiership, the word went out that they were not, at least for the moment, quite the force up front that they had been. Fortunately , by then a good start had put them into a position of safety in the league , so it will be time to regroup for their third year in the top flight from a position of comparative strength

Saints season has been a bit of a flip side of the Warriors experience. The injuries came early, as did the defeats,thick and fast , raising the ghosts of last season , including another home defeat to this weekend’s visitors. Gradually , the coaches and players have dragged the ship round and almost imperceptibly now have it pointing in the right direction. There has been some exciting play from saints’ backs all year, but before Christmas it was built on rather flimsy foundations , the backs , led by the sorcerous Carlos Spencer , coming up with the odd get out of jail card or bit of burglary to try and stem the tide but the set piece and the recycling still coughing and spluttering.. The odd glimpse of a functioning pack was initially seen mostly in the ECC and PGC , but gradually the league games have featured a much sturdier approach from the big boys in the shirts with small numbers.They first showcased a pick and drive game against Worcester at Sixways , discovered it was quite fun sitting on people rather than being sat on, and have been developing this approach for some time now ; they have reached the point where, provided the lineout doesn’t have one of its wobbly days, they will happily go toe to toe with anyone and few can keep them out over 80 minutes.

Saints, then are the form team of the pair with a win/loss record in the premiership over the same period which reads L W W W D W L W W yielding 28 points

Looking down the Warriors’ likely lineup, there should be plenty of individual match-ups and contrasting styles to enjoy. We may even get to see the likes of Shine Drahm, Mark Tucker [sadly, injured it seems], and Tevita Taumoepeau (hope geoff allen’s been practising ) return to the Gardens. Hopefully they will be behaving themselves a bit better than air Robbie Morris did at Newcastle last week ho ho.

Some to watch for Warriors will be

Craig Gillies, the lineout maestro; Saints will no doubt try to bypass him as he’s a poacher of feared ability. My view is that this will be the vital match-up, not so much Gillies v big Leroy (Damo) Browne, but the saints lineout players and coaches trying to avoid Gillies winning big on Saints throw. Saints lineout is much improved, Paul Tupai is big and strong enough to lift either of saints’ huge locks if they play as a pair, Pat Barnard has also improved the lifting and David Gerard gets Damo up high and relatively fast. Once he’s up there no-one knocks Damo out the side door , and The Wookie is likely to come on as designated poacher in the second half. If the saints’ lineout does work effectively, it’s not that easy to get into the game against them these days.The forwards are forbiddingly big and the scrummaging and driving is starting to punish teams.

Pat Sanderson, if fit, will be a great yardstick for saints’ back row, and Sam Harding in particular, to measure themselves against. After a few years of injury problems he had a sensational year last season and in my view should be first name on the sheet for England in the back row. He’s a complete all rounder, good on the floor, in defence and an excellent carrier who also keeps the ball alive, giving his team an end product. Sam, in contrast, is a fantastic ball carrier and link with the backs, and has outrageously skilful handling but is not a classic” fetcher” in the mode of Richie McCaw – these are parts of his game he’s still developing since coming to England

Worcester will pick their other two back rowers from Drew Hickey, an old mate of Ben Lewitt from Orrell days, Kai Horstmann , ex quins and another Geoff Allen nightmare in Johnny Tu’amoheloa. Hickey has a lot of mongrel, and his view of the offside line and what constitutes lying on is reminiscent of Richard Parkes and Colin Charvis – maybe it’s the hairstyle ? He’ll be slowing saints ball all day if they let him. [sadly, Hickey is out with a concussion, so Siaosi Vaili , a big Tongan, is likely to play at 8 ]. Horstmann will be very good soon , and is distinctly handy now, and Tu’amoheloa is a pure openside who will get around the park and link well.Sam Harding’s younger brother Pat is also in the mix for the back row. The key here is how well Worcester cope with the speed of Sam Harding combined with the grunt of Paul Tupai, which has been a useful combination for saints in the last few weeks.

In the front row, Worcester are scrappy and dogged rather than overwhelming without The Horse or Tim Collier shoving behind him. The contest between Tony Windo at loosehead against Pat Barnard will be interesting. Barnard doesn’t look a huge prop and for a man just over 6’ he’s surprisingly rangy, but he’s actually a big lad and has shown himself to be a fierce attacking scrummager on the tighthead , which is a novelty for saints, who are having to get to grips with the idea of having a real weapon at scrum time. He looks a bit old fashioned, liking to get his right shoulder up a bit and find the weak seam in the bind opposite. Windo is not the biggest, but as an extractor (figure it out) knows the whole box of front row tricks , so look for quite a bit of collapsing, maybe a wide start to come round the corner, maybe a soft engage to get Barnard penalized for an early shove , the scrums going up and down and being re-set. Pat’s going to be learning on his feet against this wily old bird and he won’t find it easy to get a straight pop at him. If Pat does get a firm bind on him before half time, Windo will feel all his years.

In the backs, John Braine took a leaf out of saints’ book of the past decade or so and spent big on two halfbacks last close season. Of the pair, Andy Gomersall , (are you Bedford in disguise?) on the bench for this match, has had an England career that was all too brief, in large part due to saints’ Matt Dawson being preferred for many years. Shane Drahm suffered from Daws’ long time partner Paul Grayson too often getting the nod ahead of him from Wayne Smith then the fleeting Alan Solomons at Franklins Gardens.

Both are quality players though, and it came as a shock to Gloucester and Saints to find them packing their bags for Sixways at the end of last year. Neither is necessarily best suited to the forward based game which served the Warriors well last year, and maybe it will be next year before the new , more fluid style really beds in. Gomersall’s fast pass and Shine’s flat open break both lead the ball further from the big Warrior’s pack than they had been used to, although both can kick, and Shine in particular knows where the corners are located.

Of the two, Shine will be the one worrying Saints more. When the teams last played at FG , he had 3 breaks in the first 10 minutes as saints’ defence doglegged in a series of ill-coordinated blitzes, precisely the sort of bad alignment Drahmy can punish all day. Thereafter Saints showed they did in fact know how to defend him and he duly used up space and time before he shunted a series of parcels on to his poor centres with several defenders attached ; they took the pain uncomplainingly. Saints now have their preferred centre partnership of Quinlan and Clarke available in defence and they have been a reliable pairing , both making big hits ; it will be important they keep their alignment, as if you get up too fast on his centres and leave a hole behind, Shine will take that shallow line at speed and straighten - after which it’s often goodnight.

The Warriors centres are mostly workmanlike, but they fight their corner and scavenge well. If JC gets on a wavelength with Carlos, Saints should be a bit stronger in attack , as things will start to happen.

However , the Worcester back 3 will have at least two , maybe three strike runners in a mix from Delport, Havili , Le Roux [ apparently off in Hong Kong playing 7s for France] Trueman and Hylton. Havili in particular has 6 tries this year in the GP, and is a real handful, as is Le Roux in a different way. Saints’ international trio need to step up to the plate in this confrontation ; actually, with the honours going to Carlos and his centres last week , the back three for Saints need to put down a bit of a marker anyway.

No comfort on the goalkicking front either; Shine is not actually a super high percentage kicker as some may imagine, but he does have a big boot on him and he just loves those heart-stoppers when the whole game is on the line with the last kick, as we know only too well. Against this, Bruce was not at his best in awful conditions at the Toon last week, but he has had his share of good pressure kicks this year, and Carlos remains an option , leg permitting , for the 50 yarders.

What of the hosts? Well, they are playing a little better each week and getting more adept at concealing their chronic lineout flaws.The forwards have an irritating habit of taking it on a couple too many times, particularly now they are becoming increasingly dominant. Still , it’s bearable when you remember how they were pushed around in the first part of the season.

Surprisingly the King has been passed fit but if the chance arises expect him to be given as much of the second half off as seems safe with Robbie Kydd being given some match practice at 10. Kyddo is an all round player who can kick, run or pass , but is not long back from long term injury and has no recent game time to speak of at 10. There would be small point in ignoring the talented backs even if KC comes off early , so there should be an intent to spread the ball and hopefully not just a grinding match. Anyway, playing the touchline as a matter of policy with Craig Gillies in opposition could get a bit fraught.

Positions where decisions were needed were 4 and 8. We seem to be in a phase where big David Gerard starts at lock with Matt Lord coming on later, having been the other way for a while. Might Saints start Mark Easter or would Daniel Browne be fit to resume at 8? Easter was in the Opta stats’ team for last week, Daniel has been first choice so far ; the coaches love an excuse to play the youngsters, and another week off might help Daniel. In the event , Easter is not registered for the ECC, Browne is still out, so in comes a popular choice – it’s Snowtime ! Mark Soden starts at 8, having been greatly frozen out this year. This may be the home swansong of a very fine servant of the GB & G , and a chance for the home support to let him know the esteem in which he’s held.

Well, the cat is out of the bag with announcements of the teams as follows:-

Worcester Warriors

15, THINUS DELPORT

14. Aisea Havili

13. Dale Rasmussen

12. Thomas Lombard

11. Gary Trueman

10. Shane Drahm

9. ANDY GOMERSALL

1. Tony Windo

2. Gavin Hickie

3. Tevita Taumoepeau

4. Phil Murphy

5. Craig Gillies

6. Siaosi Vaili

7. Pat Sanderson (C)

8. Kai Horstmann

16. Mike MacDonald,

17. Chris Fortey

18. Lee Fortey

19. Richard Blaze

20. Johnny Tuamoheloa

21. Andy Gomarsall

22. Simon Whatling

Northampton Saints

15.BRUCE REIHANA

14. SEAN LAMONT

13. Jon Clarke

12. DAVID QUINLAN

11. BEN COHEN

10. CARLOS SPENCER

9. MARK ROBINSON

1.TOM SMITH

2. STEVE THOMPSON

3.Pat Barnard

4. Damien Browne

5. DAVID GERARD

6. PAUL TUPAI

7 SAM HARDING

8. Mark Easter

16. Dan Richmond

17. Chris Budgen

18. Matt Lord

19. Darren Fox

20. Jonny Howard

21. Robbie Kydd

22. John Rudd

On paper, a win for Saints, handily if Carlos is fit, in view of his current form, but games aren’t played on paper and the Warriors side , shouted on by their cheerful and noisy support , have shown what can be achieved by sheer blood and guts before.

So all to play for, a good game in prospect , with a decent evening to follow in good company , hopefully