By Mark H
August 19 2004

Into the brave new world of a Saintly side coached by Alan Solomons we go; rugby returns to Franklin's Gardens after an interminably long break, and with it come a whole procession of new faces. Arguably the biggest of these is still to come; Saturday is 7 days BC, and we're all praying that Mr Krige gets through his last Western Province game on Friday unscathed so that he can start in the GBG next weekend.  The triumvirate of Solomons, Kennedy and Ponissi have made all of the right
noises, and although you cannot tell much from friendlies, the style of rugby will be particularly interesting to those attending.

Of the new signings, only Selbourne Boome is not included in the 24 man squad due to the eye injury that he sustained in training last week, but those that start are Wylie Human (from Bath), Marc Stcherbina (Biarritz) and Damien Browne (Connacht).  The squad:-

15 Bruce Reihana
14 Wylie Human
13 Mark Tucker
12 Marc Stcherbina
11 Ben Cohen
10 Shane Drahm
9 Mark Robinson
1 Brett Sturgess
2 Steve Thompson (captain)
3 Robbie Morris
4 Rob Hunter
5 Damien Browne
6 Andrew Blowers
7 Darren Fox
8 Grant Seely

16 Dan Richmond
17 James Ross
18 Ed O'Donoghue
19 Mark Soden
20 Johnny Howard
21 John Clarke
22 Chris Hyndman
23 Robbie Kempson
24 John Rudd

Mark Tucker gets the first opportunity to make the outside centre position his own, which Brett Sturgess and Robbie Morris will be looking to not make it such a formality that everyone expects Tom Smith and the Reverend Kempson to get the starting spots against Bath.

Newport Gwent Dragons come to the Gardens having finished third in last season's Celtic League, behind Llanelli and a Solly-inspired Ulster.  Consequently, they're in the Heineken Cup this season in a competitive group with Perpignan, Newcastle and Edinburgh.  They also have a new coach, in ex-Wallaby rugby league man Chris Anderson, possibly best known to the UK audience as having that winning Aussie hard mentality, and suffering heart problems during an Ashes test a couple of years back (note to COYSDC committee - tap him up for the walk...)

Dragons lost 24-14 last weekend to a Gwent Premiership XV, and there's a lot of unsung names in the squad (their most famous recruit of previous years, Percy Montgomery, will be busy trying to win a Tri-Nations on Saturday afternoon), but any team that can finish third in their league is useful, and not to be underestimated.

Solly is hoping to see the basics done well; no doubt the supporters will be looking for an impressive performance to start the new era off.  It'd be nice to get a bit of both.  Me; I'm just happy that Saturdays are fulfilling again!!

Referee for Saturday was Geraint Ashton-Jones, but is now Clive Norling lookalike Martin Fox.

Saints to win by about 10.