By Rich
September 19 2003

This weekends action sees Northampton Saints travel to Bath in round 2 of the 2003/4 Zurich Premiership. Following two seasons of underachievement Bath will be bouyed by their recent away win at Leeds and will provide a stern test for the Saints squad.

TEAM NEWS

Both teams expected to be without their world cup stars but Saints would not have expected to be missing the key trio of  Blowers, Pountney and Peilliard in only the second game of the season. Soden, Fox and Sturgess are capable deputies but any side would struggle to recover from such losses.

Both teams boast a former England and Lions full back in Matt Perry and Nick Beal, both are dangerous runners with good punting ability. Their back three colleagues are also pretty useful with another former England and Bath player Jon Sleightholme up against one of my personal favourites Brendan Daniel. On the other wing, Sky Sports man of the week Bruce Reihana will occupy former Bristolian Lee Best.

In the centres John Leslie and Mark Tucker have more experience and probably more power than Alex Crockett and Olly Barclay.

At half back I think Saints have a definite edge, Chris Malone has made little impact since moving from Exeter and I have never rated Martyn Wood. Drahm seems to have become an instant favourite with Saints fans and great things are expected of "Sharkey" (Mark Robinson).

I have a confession reagarding the Bath back row. I don't know enough about them! I do know that Connors, Soden and Fox will be a solid, workmanlike unit. The absense of Danny Grewcock will hopefully enable Connors to concentrate on the task in hand and not be drawn into squables with his 'nearly' teammates.

Second row I think is fascinating. Matt Lord is a cult hero for his work rate and 'bouncing mauls', Steve Williams can be a class act. For Bath, Fidler and Borthwick are an excellent pairing and many clubs won't better these two even after the return of the world cup players.

Finally the front row. Saints struggled here last week and it could be a case of more of the same especially from Bath's experienced trio of  Flatman, Humphries and Bell.

Saints
15 Nick Beal
14 Jon Sleightholme
13 Mark Tucker
12 John Leslie (co-capt)
11 Bruce Reihana
10 Shane Drahm
9 Mark Robinson
1 Brett Sturgess
2 Dan Richmond
3 Chris Budgen
4 Matt Lord
5 Steve Williams
6 Mark Connors (co-capt)
7 Darren Fox
8 Mark Soden

Replacements: Johnny Howard, Chris Hyndman, Oriol Ripol, Matt Miles, Robbie Morris, Jon Phillips, Grant Seely

Bath
15 Matt Perry
14 Lee Best
13 Alex Crockett
12 Olly Barkley
11 Brendon Daniel
10 Chris Malone
9  Martyn Wood
1  David Flatman
2 Jonathan Humphreys (capt)
3 Duncan Bell
4 Steve Borthwick
5 Rob Fidler
6 Andy Beattie
7 Michael Lipman
8 Zak Feaunati

16 Hentie Martens
17 Lee Mears
18 Matt Stevens
19 Robbie Kydd
20 Jamie Williams
21 James Scaysbrook
22 Scott Gray


HISTORY

The clubs first met in 1929-30 and have endured changing fortunes. In the fifties and sixties the clubs met 10 times with Saints winning 8 games to Bath's 2. In seventies they again played 10 times with Saints winning 7, Bath 2 and one draw. In 1980 Saints again beat Bath 12-6 but had to wait another ten games and 12 years before winning 11-8 in 1992-3. The eighties and early nineties were the golden era of Bath as they were the most professional club of the amateur times winning the league 6 times between 1988 and 1996 and the cup 9 times between 1984 and 1996. Long before clubs tried to be the next Leicester they all tried to be the next Bath.


LAST SEASON
Bath 10 - 27 Saints
Bath 29 Saints 30
Saints 24 - Bath 3

PREDICTION TIME
The key will be our Aussie and Kiwi players if Connors, Drahm, Reihana and Robinson have good games at Bath I can't see them living with the Saints. If however the Bath front five take a stranglehold on the game and dominate possession then the home side will win the match. Climbing off the fence...my faith is strong, I believe the Saints will win by a healthy margin.