By Leipziger
October 21 2010

The Falcons return to Premiership action tomorrow night, entertaining Saracens at Kingston Park.  After mixed experiences in Europe and only one win from our first five league games, Alan Tait will be looking to really get the domestic season going against last season’s runners-up.

The Watford/Wembley-based side beat the Falcons twice last season on their way to narrowly losing the Premiership Final to Leicester at Twickenham.  The less said about March’s hammering at Vicarage Road the better, while in the North East a year ago Saracens were 15-22 victors.  That game meant that for only the second time in Premiership history we had won none of our opening five matches as three away tries outscored five penalties from Falcons captain Jimmy Gopperth.

That day last October was the only time that second time that Saracens had won at KP since professionalism, the other being the opening day of the 2003/04 season when we also took a bonus point.

Our visitors sit third in the table having won their last four league games, with a triumph over Leeds at Headingley in between defeating Sale, Northampton and Leicester in Watford.   They opened with a 33-16 defeat to London Irish at Twickenham, and two weeks ago began the Heineken Cup campaign with a loss to French champions Clermont Auvergne in a sold-out Stade Marcel Michelin.  The 25-10 scoreline – plus a two-point defeat to Leinster at Wembley on Saturday – just shows the standard of the top competition in Europe.  How I would love to see us playing against these teams regularly.

Saracens bring north a team that combines pace and ingenuity behind the scrum with their regular forward power.  Alex Goode and Brad Barritt are a promising young English players alongside England internationals David Strettle and Richard Wigglesworth in the backs, and Noah Cato is a dangerous finisher but has only played three times this year.  Former Blue Bull and Leicester Tiger Derick Hougaard has already scored 73 points in seven appearances so far in 2010/11, and is always dangerous with the boot, as he was against the Saints with seven penalties alongside a drop goal.  Unfortunately for him he is likely to be injured for several months with an Achilles problem.

Alex Goode will take over the number ten shirt he wore in the opening games of the season, however they do have a number of other contenders to cover for Hougaard in the coming months, and fans seem to favour Jake Sharpe or Owen Farrell, son of former dual-code international Andy.   Zimbabwe-born Nils Mordt is another contender after joining from Harlequins in the summer.  Hougaard’s fellow South African Neil de Kock is a threat to any side from scrum-half, as we found out during our victory in Watford back in 2007, but has often played second fiddle to Wigglesworth this season.

In the forwards, hooker Schalk Brits was one of the Premiership’s top players last season and showed off his superb skills when scoring twice against the Falcons at Vicarage Road in March in a man-of-the-match performance.  His South African compatriots Ernst Joubert and Jacques Burger provide quality in the back row, while in the engine room apparently-former England captain Steve Borthwick has been back in the team this season following injury along with the evergreen Hugh Vyvyan, our skipper the last time we won a major trophy.  Italy’s Carlos Nieto and Kelly Brown, one of Scotland’s killer Bs, are further internationals in the Sarries’ pack, and Springbok Deon Carstens has been a regular starter since joining from the Sharks this summer.

Gcobani Bobo, Jimmy Gopperth and Micky Young all return to the starting backline, while Rob Vickers and Tim Swinson are back in the pack, Vickers taking over captaincy again from Ally Hogg.  Mark Wilson makes his first Premiership start and young props Darren Fearn and James Hall could make their league debuts from the bench:

15 Alex Tait

14 Luke Fielden
13 Gcobani Bobo
12 Luke Eves
11 Charlie Amesbury
10 Jimmy Gopperth
9 Micky Young

1 Kieran Brookes
2 Rob Vickers (captain)
3 Tim Ryan
4 Glen Townson
5 Tim Swinson
6 Mark Wilson
7 Redford Pennycook
8 Ally Hogg

Replacements
16 Joe Graham
17 Darren Fearn
18 James Hall
19 Filipo Levi
20 Brent Wilson
21 Chris Pilgrim
22 Andy Henderson

23 Tom Catterick

Borthwick captains a strong Saracens side boasting Brown and Joubert in the back row alongside the promising Andy Saull and an imposing front three of Carstens, Brits and Nieto.  Vyvyan is on the bench alongside Wigglesworth and Sailosi Tagicakibau’s younger brother Michael, and de Kock partners Goode at half-back.  With a back-line like this, our forwards will need to ensure we starve the visitors of the ball as much as possible and the defence will have to be water-tight:

15 Chris Wyles
14 David Strettle
13 Kameli Ratuvou
12 Brad Barritt
11 Noah Cato
10 Alex Goode
9 Neil de Kock
1 Deon Carstens
2 Schalk Brits
3 Carlos Nieto
4 Steve Borthwick (captain)
5 Hayden Smith
6 Kelly Brown
7 Andy Saull
8 Ernst Joubert

Replacements
16 Ethienne Reynecke
17 Matt Parr
18 Richard Skuse
19 Hugh Vyvyan
20 Justin Melck
21 Richard Wigglesworth
22 Nils Mordt

23 Michael Tagicakibau