It’s the Final Countdown….

In the past few weeks we’ve swam the channel (uphill), we’ve cycled the Tour de France and run the Tough Guy Challenge. And if we are going to win the prize all we have to do now is climb Mount Everest, and what’s more we‘ll be doing it without our expedition leader.

Most Sarries fans are still frightened of pinching themselves just in case they wake up and find it’s all been a dream. Is there anyone out there in our bookie fraternity who can tell us what the odds were on us winning all the last three games, never mind winning the final as well?

After all of the shenanigans of the past couple of weeks it will be a treat to simply see some rugby- I still can’t work out whether it’s all been a brilliant ploy by Sarries to take the attention away from the players, or an attempt by the RFU/Leicester Mafia to destabilise the opposition. At the time of writing it’s still not clear whether there will be one or two spare tickets for the final.

Our season against The Tiggers

Our unbeaten run had been lost the week before at Irish, so Tigers were not exactly ideal opponents to face next. True to form the ball spent so much time in the air that Patrick Moore was required to provide the match commentary. Although we hardly managed an attack of note the whole game and our set-piece was disembowelled by the Leicester pack, we led for most of the game and only lost due to a second-half Dan Hipkiss try.

It was a different story a couple of weeks ago- Saracens in Harlem Globetrotter mode played most of the rugby, and with the pack holding up much better this time tries from Chris Wyles and Superman Brits  were enough to deny Tigers even a losing bonus point.

Both games of course, weren’t over by a long chalk even after the fat lady had sung and gone home.

Pedigree Chumps?

No-one can doubt Leicester’s ability to reach finals. This is the their SIXTH consecutive Guinness Premiership final, and you can add two Heineken Cup finals and a couple of Anglo-Welsh finals to that list in recent years. Hardly worth our while turning up, is it? (even if we’d been allowed  to..).

The good news is that out of those 9 finals, Leicester have won only three of them and one of those was last seasons far from convincing 10-9 win over London Irish. Wasps have downed Tigers on three occasions, with the 2005 39-14 victory in Johnno’s and Neil Back’s final match being the pick of their crop. I do hope Brendan finds time this week to consult Shaun Edwards on the art of beating Leicester in the big matches.

Sale have also managed to down Leicester in style. The 2006 final was played in pouring rain and the underwater conditions obviously suited the Sharks. Against the odds the Tigers pack was taken apart and ended in disarray, Sale ran in 4 tries to emerge comfortable if rather wet winners.

Sarries, on the other hand, have no such problem with Twickenham Finals. We’ve only reached two, but managed to win them both. Our last visit to HQ apart from the Double-Header (and a few disciplinary hearings) was the Wildcard Final in 2005 when we played Gloucester, a team we had just scored our first away victory against (a good omen Raymondo?). Early tries by Hugh Vyvyan and Ben Johnston put us in charge, and despite a second half fightback by Glos wayward kicking by our former flyhalf Duncan McRae made sure Tevita Vaikona’s  late try was enough to seal the victory. Another of our former flyhalves got himself into the fray as Gene Hunt’s stunt-double Andy Goode irritated us by practicing kicks at the posts while the game was still in progress (warming up for the GP final). I don’t remember any charges being bought- but I’m sure if there’d been any biscuits involved Goodey would have scoffed the lot, and probably the sweet wrappers as well!

Thanks for the memory

In 1998 we played Leicester at VR in the Tetley Bitter Cup a few weeks after relinquishing our unbeaten run to them on Boxing Day in a game with more punches thrown than Audley Harrison has managed in his career. Ryan Constable scored an excellent try to give us an early lead, and from then on the boot of Michael Lynagh just kept our noses in front.

Austin Healey may have been the pantomime villain of the day, but he was also by far the biggest threat in the Tigers backline. You found yourself hanging on to your seat every time he got the ball. Late In the second he finally looked to have got around the outside of the Sarries defence, but George Chuter appeared from nowhere to launch him into the back of the Lower Rous with a tackle Jacques Burger would have been proud of. We hung on to win 14-13 and the rest, of course is history.

Fast forward to 2004/5 and the Steve Diamond era. Sarries are on a roll, and looking to secure a place in the top 6 and grab a Heineken Cup place. Thanks to the ticket exchange system (which we’d like back ASAP) in place at the time the crowd was one of the biggest in our time at VR. Only a few minutes into the game Martin Corry commits an almost treasonable offence in punching Richard Hill, and is sent off by Chris White.  He should have been sent to the Tower!

Thomas Castaignede had a red-letter day of a different kind, scoring a try which he converted and 4 penalties to set up a 19-17 win. For Leicester our old boys shone as George Chuter scored a try, whilst Andy Goode produced a stunning 80 metre kick along the touchline into our corner to set up a tense finale.

However, the second half will probably be remembered for Martin Johnson taking on his second member of the Russell clan, only this time he doesn’t fare so well and gets a 10 minute rest for his troubles. I don’t think he’s forgiven us since.

The teams

The recent clash at Welford Road saw both teams at just about full strength, although Toby Flood was kept out of the fray presumably to avoid bumping into Jacques Burger any sooner than necessary. A feature of Tigers this season has been the impressive form of their former Falcons, Geoff Parling being one selection to the England squad few of us would disagree with. Ben Woods will probably have to watch from the bench while Lewis Moody makes his farewell performance, and of course the big question is will Flood finally get on to the same pitch as Noah?

Unlikely, but with Alex Goode and Adam Powell leaving the field at Franklins Gardens in some discomfort there has to be a chance of Del and Rodd-ney joining up in the backline for one last episode.

Richard Haughton was one of the names mentioned to be leaving at the end of the season. He’s one of my all time favourite Sarries and I’m sure I’m not alone with that sentiment. Somewhat ironically his stellar moment was the sublime try he scored against Leicester in the Wildcard Final back in 2003 at Northampton (the score was irrelevant after such a brilliant effort).

98 Final

We’d already beaten Leicester and Northampton on the way to the final (ANOTHER good omen, Bolly) and only our old mates London Wasps stood between us and glory. It was a glorious day, and any early nerves were banished as Phillipe Sella burst through to score in the sixth minute, to be followed soon afterwards by yet another superb try form Ryan Constable; he was simply irrepressible in the second half of the 97-98 season. Wasps replied with a couple of penalties but before the break further scores had been added by Danny Grewcock and Gavin Johnson.

Any thoughts that the second half would drift in to anti-climax were soon dispelled as Steve Ravenscroft added a fifth, and a brief riposte from Wasps was answered by yet more tries from Richard Wallace and Kyran Bracken. 

Cue wild celebrations, and these were the good old days when you could go on the pitch and share the moment with the players. I still remember shaking Nigel Wray’s hand in a state of delirium and thanking him for all he’d done.

Anyway, it’s time now to put this memory back into the past and replace it with new one.

Let’s fire up the Quattro!

Ole, ole ole ole, SARRIES, SARRIES!