Northampton Saints
News: AP: Gloucester vs Notrhampton Saints - Match Preview
By Daventry Saint
April 17 2011
It's three games in a week for Northampton Saints and after the Green, Black and Gold secured a hard-fought win over Newcastle Falcons on Friday night, thoughts turn to a trip to Castle Grim on Tuesday evening to face Gloucester. Daventry Saint looks ahead to the game...
GLOUCESTER RUGBY vs. NORTHAMPTON SAINTS
Tuesday, 19th April 2011 - 7.45pm (ESPN)
KINGSHOLM
MATCH PREVIEW
Confidence, is a funny thing. With it, nothing seems impossible – all is conquerable. Without it, mole-hills turn into mountains and everything seems a struggle. During the course of the season Northampton Saints have had a complicated relationship with confidence. At first, their relationship was perfect: steadily building together, relying on each other and pulling each-other through, becoming inseparable – confidence apparently flowed through the very veins of the Saints. Suddenly, on New Year’s Day, that relationship took a severe beating, with a first home loss of the season resulting in a loss of confidence. Since then, the Saints have been on a quest to find and rebuild confidence once more, mostly through their own self-inflicted sheer bloody-mindedness and determination. This, it seemed, was not successful, with confidence slipping further and further away from its pursuers with every gut-wrenching loss. However, with a returning contingent of English troops and a recovered commander steadying and directing the ship, the Saints began their quest with renewed belief in themselves. Unfortunately, whilst the English contingent were gone, confidence had been broken down into several pieces, and needed to be rebuilt piece by piece, game by game.
Fortunately for the Saints, confidence is like the Six Million Dollar Man, and it can be rebuilt: Better, stronger, faster. First Leeds fell, relinquishing the first, but the most important piece of confidence. Second, Wasps fell, followed by Sharks: this it seemed, gave the Saints the chunks of confidence that they really needed, and confidence performances began to resemble that of their earlier season form. Come Heineken Cup time, Ulster were no match for the Saints, as confidence stood tall and led the battle, before then moving to flatten a desperate, scrappy, but proud group of Falcons. Now, as the Saints prepare to storm Castle Grim, confidence has been restored to its once mighty throne. Although still vulnerable at the moment, the Saints’ relationship with confidence is unlikely to go through so many troubles in the future – well, at least not in the same manner.
After the turbulence of their mid-season battles, it can be said that the Saints have come through to the other side a better, stronger and more experienced side. Not only will they take heart from their turnaround, but they will be all the wiser for the experience. Learning to cope without their England players, as well as the likes of Soane Tonga’uhia, is something that the Saints are going to have to get used to come World Cup time, and thus this seasons experiences will be vital in sustaining a title challenge next season. For one, Northampton will have learned that they need to step up their aggression levels in the absence of Dylan Hartley and Courtney Lawes, who lead the forward pack both in attack and defence to tremendous effect. But enough about Northampton’s troubles in mid-season, and now let us turn our attention to Tuesday’s game.
And so, what of Northampton Saints’ visit to play-off rivals Gloucester? Looking at the form book, this game would have been a closely fought contest, had it not been a midweek game. Two full strength sides playing against one another in their current form would have been a mouth-watering prospect, and perhaps the fixture may be revisited in the playoffs, with both teams at full strength, who knows? Instead, for the moment, what we are likely to see is two teams made up of mostly second string players, with a splattering of first teamers, with Gloucester more likely to be nearer full strength than the Saints. However, irrespective of the teams selected, the form guide leading into the game tells us that Northampton are in better form, winning all 5 of their last 5 fixtures, whereas Gloucester have drawn and lost in their last two.
In reality, the Cherry and Whites are in scintillating attacking form, scoring a hatful of tries against Leicester Tigers on Saturday, with a last minute interception from Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu settling the game as a draw. Gloucester’s attacking game is one of the most impressive in the Aviva Premiership, with a large contingent of the backline able to break from anywhere, with impressive pace, picking impressive lines and angles. It will be a tough task for the Saints to prevent the Cherry and Whites from crossing the white-wash on Tuesday evening, especially considering the personnel changes that are likely to occur. Gloucester are likely to be targeting Tuesday’s fixture as a must win game, potentially targeting a 5 point victory, something that is no mean feat to achieve against Northampton. Considering this, whatever team Jim Mallinder puts out, the Saints must be at their defensive peak, ready to tackle anything that moves and take every opportunity available to them.
As for the Saints, your guess is as good as mine as to what team is going to run out in the Gold, Black and Green on Tuesday evening. What we can definitively say is that a number of the Saints’ EPS players (Ben Foden, Chris Ashton, Tom Wood, Courtney Lawes and captain Dylan Hartley) will be missing due to the terms of the agreement in place with the English RFU. That means that a highly re-jigged team is likely to take to the field to challenge Gloucester, with a distinctly different looking backline likely to be thrown in at the deep-end, much like last season’s visit to the Rec. On that occasion, the team was predominantly made up of Wanderers players, and they very nearly upset the apple-cart, with a last minute drop goal attempt from Shane Geraghty just veering wide in the last minute. The drop goal would have handed the Saints a surprise win, and there is nothing to suggest that a similar showing on Tuesday won’t warrant a similar outcome for Northampton.
The most likely candidates for a rest, aside from the England 5: Soane Tonga’uhia, Brian Mujati, Roger Wilson, Stephen Myler and James Downey. Phil Dowson is a difficult decision: yes he has played a lot of rugby, but do the Saints require his leadership at the very least? After his misdemeanours against Newcastle on Friday night, is he in the right frame of mind to lead the team out against such fierce opposition? The team selection will be a major headache for Messer’s Mallinder, West and Grayson this week, and the selection may well reflect the management’s decisions to target certain games, whilst resting players for others. Interestingly, Bryan Redpath claimed that Gloucester’s game against Leicester on Saturday was not one which the West Country team were targeting, yet they still pulled out one of the attacking performances of the season.
With all these things considered, the game on Tuesday will be an intriguing encounter, not only due to the two teams selected starting line-ups, but also the ambition that both teams will play with. All I am hoping for as a Saints fan is a good performance, and a good showing from the second-string players that are likely to making a rare appearance in the Gold, Black and Green.
Tuesday 19th April, 7.45pm: Gloucester
Rugby
DaventrySaint’s Predicted Team:
15 Greig Tonks
14 Bruce Reihana
13 Jon Clarke
12
Matt Cornwell
11 Paul Diggin
10 Shane Geraghty
9 Lee Dickson
1 Alex
Waller
2 Brett Sharman
3 Tom Mercey
4 Mark Sorenson
5 Christian
Day
6 Calum Clarke
7 Phil Dowson
8 Mark Easter
Replacements:
16 Andy Long
17 Soane Tonga’uhia
18
Brian Mujati
19 Adam Eustace
20 Roger Wilson
21 Stuart Commins
22
Stephen Myler
23 James Downey/Jamie Elliot
Saints by 2.
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Stumbleupon17/04/2011 23:08
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:04:17:23:09:34 by Phil..
David L
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