Yo Ho Ho and a Bucket of Blood

By Chris Chaplin
November 7 2002

Undeterred by a successful forecast last weekend your veteran Previewer struggles to make some sense out of the Zurich Lottery that the premiership becomes while the Autumn Internationals grind on their wearisome way.

And so to the traditional torrid encounter between the Tigers and their little porcine pals from Franklin's Gardens.

I have seen the Saints play a couple of times this season and have been impressed by their pack in particular although once past the educated play of Grayson the rest of their back division looks bafflingly devoid of ideas.

In the match against Sorries the Saints pack was dominant yet again and again they failed to penetrate the Watford crew's defence and I believe that had Goode not been having a "can do nothing wrong day" with the boot Saints would have ground out a win.

From what I hear the Saints pack was similarly impressive when they visited the Castle Grim last weekend when they received their customary warm welcome from the Shed who are always pleased to see Matt Dawson in particular.

During the first half they presented a very real threat to the outstanding pack in the premiership thus far this term. To be fair, as was the case at Welford Road, the conditions prevented accurate flowing rugby but in spite of this the Saints half-back pairing had the beating of the Glaws duo until Grayson departed midway through the match with a deadleg.

Saints, like Tigers, are decimated by International demands on their players so the outfit that will be on parade next Saturday will be very different to that which we are used to. Richmond replaces Thompson at Hooker but he is of course no Thompson who is superbly mobile and athletic and will be sorely missed as of course will Stewart and the wonderful Tom Smith. The front row is therefore an area of relative inexperience when compared to the usual line up.

In the second row there is no shortage of experience although with the excellent Willaims on duty with Wales Connors partners Phillips and I still have Connors set in my mind as a superb Flanker rather than a Lock. Seely (still in one piece after losing the HEC match for them with surely the daftest foul ever) Soden and the excellent Blowers, who is the rock upon which so much of Saints game is based link up in the back row but they will miss the dynamic presence of Pountney even if he rarely seems to play a full 80 minutes usually preferring to have a 10 minute breather at some point and of course he will miss another meeting with our RichW!

With him back at his best Dawson is a massive loss to Saints, he is the creator in chief, referees' assistant and young Howard, who gets the nod over Brooks has a big game ahead of him.

If Dawson designs the Saints edifice then Grayson is the builder. Playing some great rugby this season his intelligent play making and superbly educated boot is so influential and how fortunate it is for Saints that his international playing days are past.

It is in the centre where it seems that Saints run out of ideas and this time we see Leslie with the South African born Tucker in the roles of trying to get ball to the rejuvenated Sleightholme and the exciting Oriol Ripol who reminds me of our own Steve Exocet Booth with his speed, mazy running and unusual lines.

At full-back another Saint experiencing something of a revival this season. Beal is, I always feel, a little predictable (the curse of the #15 shirt) but what he does he usually does well.

So if sporting a somewhat inexperienced front row and scrum-half and really without any experienced back up on the bench, there is experience a plenty at lock boosetd by having Hunter on the bench covering that slot and flanker, with young Fox also in attendance, so good options there. Brook waits his chance at 9 and of course Reihana will make an appearance at some point - he'll be the one with a flight bag over his shoulder!!

As far as I can see aside from the front row and 9 this is an experienced team with good bench support. Methinks Wayne Smith is playing mind games with the master in such things. Mr Richards is unlikely to be deceived.

Now of Tigers??!! Well with the Kremlin like security that is "No News From Oval Park" I have to make some assumptions and my comments are based on the team being as mentioned as follows:

Clearly in Freshwater/West/Garforth the young Saints front row will have a real challenge to compete and I cannot see anything other than the Tigers front row being dominant in this area. The situation at lock is somewhat different. I rather suspect that Corry will partner Deacon here and I see the contest as being pretty even. If the back row is comprised of Josh, Balding and Will Johnson I think that Josh will just give them the edge. Essentially therefore it will come down to the front row where the real difference is, so I expect the Tigers pack to prevail and they must not give way penalties or Grayson will simply kick us to death hence the likelihood of Garf rather than Franck starting..

With Tierney restored at Scrum half young Howard could have a difficult time and we must hope that Grayson is denied good quick ball, for otherwise we shall spend a lot of time running back to our 22. I have a sneaking feeling that we may see McMullen start at 10 this week and partner his ACT pal Rod Kafer and if so it will be interesting to see how the ACT inspired, but thus far badly executed, gameplan pans out. I hope that Ollie Smith makes a reappearance at outside centre or otherwise Gelderbloom but please not Lloyd. In the case of the former I think they'd both be too much for Tucker.

On the wing presumably Booth and Tuilagi will be in residence with Geordan and Oz missing, unless of course Ellis makes a reappearance and Booth goes to full back, where of course with Stimpson, Murphy and Healey away we do not have a recognised #15 or indeed goal kicker.

In summary if Grayson is denied good ball so that he cannot keep us pinned back and bombard our inexperienced fullback (whoever he is) I think we could win. We need to bear in mind that Saints will not be overly concerned at conceding penalties as they know we don't have a golden boot on the park. So the game has to be played at pace, no fiddling about at the base of the scrum (are you listening Mr Hamilton if you get on) and with much improved accuracy from the centres and wings.

My prediction? Well when I started writing this piece my heart told me a Tigers win but my head gave a contrary opinion. However I think I've talked my self into a very tight Tigers victory - but I'm not taking any bets!