Northampton Saints
News: Northampton Saints v Bath Rugby - Match Preview
By Simon Hendy
September 16 2010
To open up their third week of Aviva Premiership coverage, ESPN are lucky enough to have a top-of-the-table clash between the only two clubs still with a 100% record - Saints at home to Bath.
Aviva Premiership Round 3
Northampton Saints v Bath Rugby
Friday 17th September - Franklin's Gardens
KO 7:45
Last season was one of two halves for Bath. At the end of 2009 they were one result away from bottom of the league and looking absolutely dire. I’m not quite sure what changed, but the return of Butch James (shoulder) and Ollie Barkley (broken leg) coincided with a winning run that saw them end the season in 4th place in the league, scoring tries and bonus points all over the place. It’s a shame that the Saints game at the Rec early in 2010 was postponed, as we’d probably have won it because Bath were a long way from top form. As it was, we ended up having to play them mid-week at the end of the season, and a fairly strong Bath side just held out against a significantly weakened Saints team.
Bath have had a better off season compared to the drug-tainted headlines of a year ago. Pharmaceutical millionaire Bruce Craig bought out owner Andrew Brownsword, and looks to be happy to dip into his deep pockets. They have moved their administrative and training base out to the 17th century Farleigh Manor – slightly more luxurious than Lambridge where they used to train – and have also tempted current England captain Lewis Moody away from his long time home at Welford Road. Presumably he got the wrong memo and heard that there was something special happening at Bath…
Other signings include Simon Taylor from France and Sam Vestey, also from Leicester.
They are, however, still having problems with the long overdue re-development of the Rec – we have enough problems with out local council, but Bath also have to contend with the Charities Commission and a small but very vocal group of NIMBY’s. There are alternatives to the Rec, such as a development on old industrial land on the Western Riverside, but it will be interesting to see what happens over the next year or two now that they have a new owner. Interestingly, it looks as if a supermarket might be involved, which sounds familiar.
Personally I’d love to see a re-development on the Rec – a U-shaped stadium tastefully clad in Bath stone, with the pitch rotated 90 degrees, would be a great addition to the area and would mean that we don’t have to lose one of the best locations to go and watch rugby. Obviously it’ll never quite match up to the delights of Jimmy’s End, but it would be great to see Bath play in a nice ground.
Bath are top of the table on 9 points, having opened up this season with a bonus point win away to Leeds, and last week they took a late win against London Irish.
However, all this has come at quite some cost – fly-half Butch James is out until November with a new shoulder injury, and Matt Banahan, Lee Mears, David Flatman and Simon Taylor were all hurt against Irish – Steve Meehan has indicated that it’s unlikely that any of them will make the 6-day turnaround for the Saints game. Nick Abendanon looks luck to have carried on against Irish after being apparently knocked out prior to his winning try.
The solid but unspectacular Sam Vestey will stand in a fly-half – Butch James is a real loss for them, but personally I won’t miss him. Yes he might be a good player, but I don’t particularly like what I’ve seen of how he plays the game.
Bath will need a good performance from their front row to contend with Saints strong and mobile bunch, and potentially losing Flatman won’t help – although they do still have a fair array of front row talent.
There is also a possibility that Lewis Moody will be missing, as his wife is due to give birth very shortly.
As for the Saints, I would like to see a bit of player rotation, as this needs to start early in the season. Therefore I wouldn’t be surprised if Euan Murray gets a start. Will Bruce Reihana continue to play every game, or will he take the occasional break this season? And the big question is Myler or Geraghty? I’m confident that Jim Mallinder and co will make the right choices.
If Bath were at full strength, this would be a tough match between two very good teams, and I’d have said that Saints would probably take advantage of being at home and take a narrow win, with a losing bonus point for Bath. However as Bath seem to be so weakened by injuries, I’ll go for a clear Saints win, with hopefully plenty of exciting running rugby, and Saints top of the table come the end of the weekend.
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Interesting to see how Bath cope with so many first team players out for this game.
“Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”
Benjamin Franklin
Tetleys Block F E143
Saint til I die
Franklins Gardens is a tough place to come at any time but missing first choice playmakers and strike runners is obviously going to make our life much harder.
Quote:Howlin
..."players out" can often be a bit of a red herring. It is a squad game these days as we are often reminded...
If we had one or two missing, or were heading somewhere other than FG I might agree with you. However, with the form Saints have been showing, and missing five international players (possibly six if Moody Jr. turns up tomorrow) I'd be satisfied at grinding out a losing bonus point.
Of course, we do have a slightly stonger squad this year, in my opinion - so who knows?
I obviously hope for a saints victory. After all it is the Gardens. However it's far from a foregone conclusion.
Saint til I die
All good previews make me increasingly nervous as the day draws near, and this one does just that: well writ young man!
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