By T
March 22 2007

The last Friday game Sarries played ended in defeat to Newcastle after a much changed Saracens side blew a host of scoring chances. Saracens head down the Irish province of Berkshire knowing that a similar performance will end with the same result, giving up 4 points to one of their play off rivals.
Irish have moved up on the blind side and are now just 5 points behind Saracens, Bristol and Wasps, a win for Irish will really shake up the race to the play offs and HC qualification. From there being three teams chasing two play-off spots, Irish’s St Patrick’s weekend inspired victory over Wasps now means that there are 4 teams chasing two spots. With several of the teams playing one another in the last few games this is what Sir Alex Fergusson might describe as “squeaky bum time”, although quite what the new England director of rugby has to do with it is anyone’s guess…

Bristol appear to be wobbling having lost their last few games but are a very different proposition at home where three of their remaining games take place. We probably have the toughest run of the lot, in having to play Wasps, Irish and Worcester (who’ll be fighting for their premiership status) away from home. That said Wasps and Irish don’t exactly have it easy either having to play teams struggling at the bottom and fighting in out at the top!

Irish welcome back the ever popular Delon Armitage after his ban against Wasps and have the latest England superstar Geraghty starting at 10. The brilliant Argentinian Juan Leguizamon starts at 8 and an intriguing match up of Hill vs Magne will surely be worth turning up in the rain for! Wasps bound Riki Flutey is in at 12 due to the formerly ‘mercurial’ Mike Catt’s injury.

The England U20 contingent return for Saracens, with Adam Powell given the 12 shirt, Rodd Penny is the unlucky man to drop to the bench. As yet DC comic’s have yet to write about the second coming of Superman so while his cover is still intact Tom ‘Clark Kent’ Mercy replaces Nick Lloyd on the bench.

Saracens should have walked away with 5 points against Irish in January but astonishingly failed to register anything more than a penalty try. Saracens will be hoping to get things right this time, a win will probably take Saracens out of Irish’s grasp, a loss and we’ll be keeping a close eye on everyone’s results over the next few weeks.

It’s much more exciting than our usual relegation dogfight isn’t it?!

Saracens:

15 T. Castaignede, 14 D. Scarbrough, 13 K. Sorrell, 12 A. Powell, 11 K. Ratuvou, 10 G. Jackson, 9 N. de Kock, 8 B. Skirving, 7 R. Hill, 6 K. Chesney, 5 S. Raiwalui, 4 I. Fullarton, 3 C. Johnston, 2 S. Byrne, 1 K. Yates
Replacements:
16. M. Cairns, 17. T. Mercey, 18. H. Vyvyan, 19. D. Seymour, 20. M. Rauluni, 21. R. Penney, 22. T. de Vedia

Irish:
15. Delon Armitage, 14. Topsy Ojo, 13. Seilala Mapusaua, 12. Riki Flutey, 11. Sailosi Tagicakibau, 10. Shane Geraghty, 9. Paul Hodgson, 1. Neal Hatley, 2. Robbie Russell, 3. Tonga Lea'aetoa, 4. James Hudson, 5. Bob Casey, 6. Kieran Roche, 7. Olivier Magne, 8. Juan Leguizamon
Replacements:
16. Michael Collins, 17. David Paice, 18. Nick Kennedy, 19. Phil Murphy, 20. Declan Danaher, 21. Barry Everitt, 22. Nils Mordt.