By Chris Gleadell
February 12 2009

After a weekend without a game and the loss at Harlequins now becoming a distant memory the Saints will be aiming to return to home form with the game against Saracens at the Gardens on Saturday. The camp seems to have been pretty much silent since the game at the Stoop but I would guess the break from competitive action has been put to good use with all focus on 3pm Saturday afternoon

Chris Gleadell's Thoughts - From the Chron

when I would imagine the team will be chomping at the bit to come out all guns blazing.

The squad must feel they have something to prove after the display at Quins not only to the supporters but probably more importantly to themselves. Whilst some people were proclaiming that the rot has started to set in on Saturday the lads have to go out and prove that what happened two weeks ago was just an aberration, an alarming dip in form maybe but when all is said and a one off blip and one that will not be repeated.

We meet a Saracens side in some turmoil of their own at the moment.  However the powers that be at the club try and dress down the fact it is clear a South African based takeover is gradually taking place. There are rumours that this does not sit well with some staff at the club and the edging out of the popular Eddie Jones this week - who is to be replaced by Matt Dawson's old sparring partner Brendan Venter - was the final straw for a few. Some bought into Jones vision and reputation in joining the club, working under Venter and his paymasters might not be such an appetising proposition. The big question will be what state of mind will the Fezheads turn up in on Saturday. Will this disquiet and uncertainty unsettle the squad or have the reverse effect and they will come to Northampton with a point to prove in support of Jones. Time will tell but I think our boys have a bigger wrong to put right and with the return of Ben Foden, inexplicably dropped by England , I think we can preserve that home record that stretches back nearly two years and make a further step up towards sixth place in the Guinness Premiership table.

Six Nations

Win or lose on Saturday I am sure most supporters will be heading straight home or to one of the local bars or pubs to watch the Six Nations clash between Wales and England in Cardiff .

If you are a follower of England given last weeks performance you will not be looking forward to it with any great relish. Indeed those with tickets, and I know there are a few from Northampton travelling west, must feel like they have been given invites to an execution.

Five days on and I am still trying to work out exactly what I saw from England last Saturday against Italy . By the same token I hope they are all out on the paddock this week trying to work out exactly the same thing because if that was the gameplan to take the national side forward then things are a lot worse than anyone first thought.

People may point out that yes the squad is in a time of flux and there is not strength of depth in certain areas where injuries hit but Martin Johnson has been in charge for over six months now and whatever team was put out you would expect a cohesive gameplan that the players could by and large stick to. However on Saturday we saw nothing more than a mish-mash of plays that seem to confuse those taking part more than anything else.

The honeymoon period is certainly over for Johnson. At the very least you would expect to see a little improvement in some areas but in some respects we look like we are going backwards at an alarming rate. On Saturday we saw a side playing a game that Brian Ashton's team of last year would probably have torn apart. Is that progress?

Building towards the Rugby world Cup in New Zealand in 2011 I am all in favour of losing a few battles to win the war by giving young talent its chance but you do really have to question Johnson's coaches selection policy too if this really is the true aim.

If I can digress a minute into Italian cookery, they say the way to tell if your spaghetti is cooked properly is to throw a bit at the kitchen wall, if it sticks, serve it up, if it drops to the floor boil a little bit longer. When you have finished sweep up the ‘failures' and put them in the bin.

In Hollywood in the early 1980's the term ‘spaghetti casting' was coined. The big studios signed all manner of young actors and threw them at all manner of films in an attempt to develop talent. It was the classic famous for 15 minutes scenario, some stuck (though for some reason only Demi Moore sticks in my mind) many others failed and fell by the wayside, their dreams broken. Indeed if you've been to California one has probably served you at McDonalds.

Why do I mention this, well there are some striking similarities with what is happening with England at the moment. Our own Ben Foden is a case in point. I have no doubt given Bens talent he will return at some stage but what message does that send to young aspiring players and to Ben himself when you see him dropped from the squad after playing just a few minutes in a floundering side, when others more culpable remain and get yet another chance.

You could say the same of Danny Cipriani. He might get some stick for being the medias current darling, but he has undoubted talent and to see the likes of Andy Goode after Saturdays display picked before him this week is surely a kick in the teeth. Steffon Armitage is another, yes not at his best last week but he has been one of the standout players in the Guinness Premiership this season, he is replaced by Joe Worsley who quite simply has not been.

All three are class players, all three cast aside, all three probably have seeds of doubt planted in their mind through this treatment. And they are not alone. Some will no doubt be treated in this manner never to be seen again.

To return to the losing battles to win the war theme, it looks to me like England are floundering from battlefield to battlefield and are using any means to try and win, if not win then damage limitation, with no thought of the future.

In my mind someone in the England hierarchy needs to take a step back look at the bigger picture. Invest in that young talent, nurture them, keep them involved, give them their chance and accept that along the way you will probably lose quite a few of those battles, didn't after all the nucleus of a World Cup winning squad get stuffed 98-0 at one stage?  Accept that and you might just be building towards that more important conflict in 2011 with a pretty good selection of troops. Carry on the way we are then on the face of it that final battle will be long, long lost before the squad even board that plane to New Zealand.

As for Saturday, Wales at a canter!