By The Bard
November 17 2006

Thanks to probably the best decision Roy Maybank has ever made, the Fez travel up the M1 in the knowledge they can establish a foothold in the top six rather than looking over their shoulders worrying about Worcester, next up at Vicarage Road. It’s King Carlos one week, Drahma Queen the next! The matches last year were a stark contrast in styles- at Vicarage Road after a couple of early Saints tries the ball disappeared up Simon Raiwalui’s jumper, and wasn’t seen again until the ref got it back at the end of the match, by which time the Saints pack had been well and truly ground into the dirt.

A few months on and the season was falling apart for the Men In Black- the Two Annies (Ford and Diamond) were either going or gone, and we arrived at Franklins Gardens on the back of a run of poor defeats. Saints on the other hand were coming into form, so our early try was a massive relief and raised hopes of an upset. Sadly it was the falsest of dawns, and King Carlos chose the moment to show us all the tricks in his box. By the end of the afternoon the scoreboard was wracking up numbers not normally seen outside the cricket season, and Sean Lamont had scored more tries than the Scotland team manage in a whole season.

Although it was only a friendly (uncontested scrums in all but name, and tackling not allowed) Mr Spencer again showed his liking for Sarries ‘defence’ in the Richard Hill testimonial game.

Are there any other Saints to worry about? Certainly Steve Thomson has put himself back in the spotlight with a couple of tries at Worcester, and must have been close to selection for England this week. Travelling in the opposite direction is Ben Cohen, who will have the opportunity to vent his frustration on the Sarries back line. The Saints pack is much improved from that seen this time last year, and we will certainly have to match them for aggression if we are not to be swept away again. So is it all a bed of roses in the Saracens garden after our win on Sunday? Areas of concern must be our in-efficiency in our opponents 22 compared to Gloucester and Tigers in the last two games. Such was the extent of overlaps being butchered in the first half I couldn’t tell whether it was Kris Chesney, Paul Gustard or Fred Elliot responsible! In the second half we were plagued with forward passes when under very little pressure.

Will Faz keep his place? I fancy he might, although with Ben Johnston missing out on the England squad a return to the bench is possible. Del looked to have quite a major knock, so there is all probability of MTC coming in at full-back with Scabs moving to the wing. If I was picking the team, I would be putting Ben Johnston at 15, Faz at 12 and leaving MTC on the bench. Ironically we could be coming up against erstwhile Sarrie Robbie Kydd in the Saints fullback shirt, and I’m sure he’d love to remind us of his undoubted talent.

As for the Fat Boys, decisions will centre on whether we pick Seymour to get after Spencer, although at Kingsholm Ryan Lamb danced around him rather too often for comfort as he rushed in to make the tackle..

Contact lenses are another issue- Yatesy seems to loose about 10 every week, and altogether judging by his attempts at catching kick-offs in the last couple of matches, Brucie has either lost his altogether or is using the same optician as Roy Maybank!. Can we have a bell in the ball please?

The history books show that whilst we were regular winners at Franklins Gardens in the 1990’s, the new Millennium has not been very fruitful and our only win in recent times was in 2004/5 when we scraped a narrow win, and Steve Diamond made acquaintances with the Saints physio who was very concerned about Kyran’s injured inner ear.

Anyway, enough of this rubbish, I will leave you with a prediction that....er.....anything could happen. We can be pretty sure however that we will need our best performance of the season to come away with the spoils.