Preview: Northampton Saints v Leeds Tykes

By apb
January 21 2005

So, less than 24 hours to go, and the next in a series of must-win games for both Northampton and Leeds takes place at Franklin's Gardens. Saints are on the up, with good recent wins in the Premiership, and winning through to the quarter finals of the Heineken Cup,

whereas Leeds are also on the up, albeit less up, with good wins and one excellent performance against Petrarca Padova to push them through to the semi-final of the "inter-toto of Rugby", the European Shield.

With form as a guide, Saints hold all the aces. Their recent win against us at the Gardens on New Year's Day continued their rise in form since the "under new management" sign went up, but it was by all accounts a particularly dull game, and memorable only for the spat amongst the message-board fans that Mr. Richard Parks managed to cause.

In case you've been on Jupiter since Christmas, Richard Parks was found guilty of punching Corne Krige during that game, and each of the two sets of fans have arrayed themselves behind "their man". Hopefully this is all robust debate that could easily be had over a pint and won't degenerate into anything sinister (those left-handers really need to be watched ).

Saints have a galaxy of talent on their books, but for reasons unknown to your author at the time of writing (another Friday afternoon special), many of whom would be considered "top men" do not appear on the team sheet - Mr. Krige, for example, is missing. As with every Premiership side, though, the absence of stars does not mean a pushover, and Leeds will have to be on their mettle to secure a win.

Can they win? They most certainly can! The pace and handling of the backs in particular has come in for some criticism over past weeks, but that was truly laid to rest last week against Padova, where all the backs score tries and the handling excellent. Speaking about the team performance, regular poster Prawn Cocktail said "It was the attitude with which we played and the speed and quality of the handling that was impressive on Saturday".

The pack for this Saturday looks strong with all the first-choice front row in place, and a rare outing for Scott Morgan at blindside rather than his usual lock position; options in the lineout would appear to be the thinking on this one. Richard Parks comes back from suspension and resumes the no. 7 shirt, with dependable workaholic Colm Rigney now having made that no. 8 shirt his own.

The crowd at the Gardens is always very vocal and since Leeds have never won there, history says there is a mountain to climb for the Tykes. Recent performances too would put the Saints as the victors in this one. The team sheet, though, seems to suggest that Leeds are the stronger team, and that perhaps Saints don't really want the Powergen Cup, seeing it as something of a distraction to the main game of staying up and playing the Heineken.

Thus Leeds can go into the game with some confidence that perhaps they want it more than Northampton do. If they get things right on the day, and have that belief, its theirs for the taking.

Teams:
Northampton Saints:

15 BRUCE REIHANA
14 Wylie Human
13 BEN COHEN
12 Marc Stcherbina
11 Mark Tucker
10 Shane Drahm
9 Johnny Howard
1 TOM SMITH
2 Dan Richmond
3 Simon Emms
4 Grant Seely
5 Damien Browne
6 ANDREW BLOWERS
7 Darren Fox
8 ROSS BEATTIE

16 Johan van Wyk
17 Chris Budgen
18 Matt Lord
19 Mark Soden
20 MARK ROBINSON
21 PAUL GRAYSON
22 Andy Vilk


Leeds Tykes:

15. TIM STIMPSON
14. DIEGO ALBANESE
13. Chris Bell
12. PHIL CHRISTOPHERS
11. ANDRE SNYMAN
10. GORDON ROSS
9. Alan Dickens
1. Mike Shelley
2. MARK REGAN
3. Rayno Gerber
4. Chris Murphy
5. TOM PALMER(c)
6. Scott Morgan
7. RICHARD PARKS
8. Colm Rigney
16. GAVIN KERR
17. Rob Rawlinson
18. Stuart Hooper
19. Jon Dunbar
20. Pierre Uys
21. Mark McMillan
22. IAIN BALSHAW

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