Northampton Saints
News : Saints v Falcons LV= Cup Preview
By HR Saints Fan
October 31 2014
So here we are again with this seasons fare of the LV=Cup competition or the Anglo-Welsh Cup as it is also known. Our sponsors say of this competition that it “offers a fantastic platform for today's club players to develop into tomorrow's international players. The tournament also provides a great platform for us to engage with our rugby fans”.
LV=Cup Round 1
Northampton Saints v Newcastle Falcons
Saturday 1st November 4pm
Franklin's Gardens
I guess that this statement echoes what I feel about the LV=Cup clashing initially, as it always does, with the Autumn Internationals. I admire the sponsors in that, rather than begrudge the bigger tournaments which do not have the distraction of losing the majority of top players to international duty, they see the benefit of other ‘less well known’ players being given a chance to show what they can do for coaches and fans alike.
However for reasons that I cannot fathom, this competition involves a very odd and rather convoluted set up. For those that, over the past few years, have been as confused as I have about how this works, the following may, or probably may not, help (you can skip this bit if you are fully conversant with all things LV=Cup):-
There are 12 English Premiership teams and four Welsh teams that take part. They are split into four pools of four teams with the English Clubs allocated to pools depending on their finishing position in last season’s Aviva Premiership, and the Welsh teams allocated to pools so that they avoid repeating any fixtures from the European Rugby Champions Cup (if they are in that competition).
So far so good I think. However, here comes the bizarre bit.
The teams do not play those in their own pool but the teams from another pool. Why this is I do not know, but the teams from Pool 1 play those from Pool 4, and Pool 2 plays Pool 3. There are two home and two away matches, so at least there is one more pool game than would otherwise be the case if the teams were only playing within their own pool.
Qualification is straight-forward. The top four teams from each pool play in a Semi-Final knockout format. These teams are ranked 1-4 with the 1st ranked team playing the fourth and the 2nd and 3rd teams likewise battling it out for a place in the final which will be at.........our very own Franklins Gardens.
The pools this year are:-
Pool 1 – Bath, Gloucester, Newport Gwent Dragons and Saracens
Pool 2 – Cardiff Blues, London Irish, Northampton Saints and Sale Sharks
Pool 3 – Leicester Tigers, Newcastle Falcons, Scarlets and Wasps.
Pool 4 – Exeter Chiefs, Harlequins, London Welsh and Ospreys.
So we have some intriguing games ahead of us against the Pool 3 teams, starting with this Saturday’s match against Newcastle Falcons.
Newcastle arrive at Franklins Gardens on the back of four straight victories, two in the Aviva Premiership, and two in the Challenge Cup. This run started with their first home win of the season against Exeter Chiefs which ended a twenty match losing streak. They then went to Oxford and beat London Welsh before commencing rounds 1 and 2 of the European Challenge Cup, firstly a win at home against Bucuresti (probably expected) and then a win on the road against Newport Gwent Dragons (probably less expected). This last result was particularly impressive as they came back from being 20-13 down at half time to eventually run out 30-26 winners.
Dean Richards has stated publically that these results have given him a “serious selection headache” for the Saints game – although I am sure it is a headache that he welcomes with the recently renewed confidence of his squad. His young guns performed very well although Richards has hinted that there will be changes for the game at Franklins Gardens as “there are a lot of battered bodies in the squad at the moment, and these boys can’t all keep going”.
As for the Falcon’s team selection, it would be ridiculous for me to try and guess with my very limited knowledge of their players. However I think we can expect to see some of their foreign stars selected to start this game. Uili Kolo’ofai, Josh Furno, Ally Hogg, Mike Blair, Alesana and Andy Tuilagi have all been named by the local press as a possible start especially as none of these players were registered to play in the Challenge Cup (I personally am looking forward to seeing how Uncle Geoff pronounces Uili’s Tongan name..!!). Winning is a good habit and one that Dean Richards will be very keen to keep going.
However they face a team who are also very much in the winning habit.
The Saints will fancy their chances in this tournament, one which they have reached three finals over the past five years, although only winning one of those games in 2010. Jim has come out and said that some teams do not treat the competition in the same way that Saints do and just “chuck in some youngsters to make up the numbers”. But he acknowledges that it is a tournament that the club love to be involved in, and it brings different challenges for the coaches as the young players coming in are not playing at the same level as the international players.
Nevertheless there will be some players who see this as an opportunity to impress and to stake a claim for more first team game time. Phil Dowson – the squad father – has said this week that he has been a bit frustrated by a lack of playing time in a season that has yet to see him start a game. Apart from personally looking forward to this weekend’s game, Dowson also mentions other players who he feels he will be “steering around the park” such as Teimana Harrison and Alex Woolford. We can also expect to see Jon Fisher return after illness which is good news as I, and I am sure many others, have been impressed by his pre-season trial, and by his performances once he was signed up on a full-time contract. As a bit of an aside, one of the things that have impressed me most with our current coaching set-up has been our ability to take players that other clubs don’t seem to want, and turn them into first-class performers. Luther is perhaps the prime example, but Jon Fisher is, I think, another in this mould.
Turning to our own team selection I don’t think any of the international call-up players are released for this weekend (I may be wrong but I cannot find any mention of it anywhere and the All Blacks game is not until Saturday week anyway) so we will see a very different side turn out against the Falcons. Again I am not going to guess as the team sheet will be announced shortly anyway, and I would only end up looking silly..!!
As for the result, I expect it to be close but, with Franklins Gardens a fortress once more, I think Saints will edge it by 5 points.
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