PLAYING FOR THE JERSEY

Someone tell me it was all a bad dream! A nightmare no less. Surely it didn’t happen? Did it? Did the former European Champions really fall to earth in a Cornish field last weekend? Oh my, we’re in trouble.

Someone suggested that this Saturday’s match against Jersey could be the biggest game in the Club’s history. That may well be true – but then again so will the next 9 be and if we manage to make it to the finals, those last 2 games will be stratospheric! I suppose one could argue that the cavalry will be back by the time we face Richmond after a week’s break so this weekend’s match-up really is make or break.

When we were relegated last season did anyone seriously think it would be this hard? Afterall Newcastle didn’t lose a game last season (well until the season was prematurely truncated) and surely we’re a better team than they were? Apparently not. That Newcastle team remained largely in tact with Mark Wilson the only significant player to move out. This Saracens team isn’t even the Storm team of least season. Players have been brought in to do a job which they have patently failed to do. What with the ramifications of the Barbarian squad’s misbehaving and the international call ups, what is left just doesn’t appear to be good enough to get us out of the Championship. And perhaps even more worryingly, they don’t look like they care enough either.

What happened to those much vaunted Saracens’ values? Stronger Together seems to be the current hashtag – but there hasn’t been too much evidence of that. The team need to regain that old Sarries ethos: Discipline, Honesty, Work-rate, Humility. All of these have been lacking so far.

Can the coaches turn this round in a week? As has been said elsewhere, rugby in the Championship is a different game of chess. The forwards are all important. So given that our pack has World Cup winning experience and a good mix of youth and experience, why are they so bad? I have to say that I think Alex Sanderson’s departure has left a huge hole in the foundations of this club; a hole that needs patching pretty damn quick and a full repair before the end of the month.

Last Saturday’s performance, woeful as it was, needn’t be season defining though. There is still time to turn this around but it has to start at home to Jersey this weekend. Jersey, like every other team we play, will be up for this, 200%. Pirates proved last week that Saracens can be beaten and now every other Championship Club will believe that they too can win. The “invincibility cloak” was ripped up after its first wearing.

Jersey have played twice so far – losing both friendlies: by just 1 point to Coventry then a heavier defeat against Cornish Pirates. Last weekend was their “rest weekend”. Jersey have a new half back pairing in 21 year old scrum half Cameron  Nordli-Kelemeti (on loan from Newcastle) and South African Fly half Bader Pretorius (brought in to replace Sam Leeming who is undergoing treatment for non-Hodgkins Lymphoma) as back-up to James Elliott and Brendan Cope. They are joined by former welsh under-20 back row forward Tim Grey. Looking at their player profiles they have 4 Hookers available (wonder if they could lend us one?) including big smiling TJ Harris. The team is ably captained by Sean O’Connor.

What will Mark McCall do? Does he stick with the core of last week’s squad (on the grounds they couldn’t possibly play so badly again) or does he make changes? Does he introduce new loan signing  Ethan Lewis into a beleaguered front row? (Probably depends if he can hit a barn door at a line out). Or Newcastle lock Toby Salmon into the 2^nd row? Presumably Sean Maitland will be unavailable so at least one change will have to take place. I suspect there may be 1 or 2 tweaks but the team to play Jersey will not be dissimilar to that which lost to Pirates. Oh, how I hope they have been working on the set piece though: line-outs, scrums, touch kicks. Sort out the basics and the rest will take care of itself. The forecast for Saturday promises light rain showers and a fresh breeze. We all know the wind at Allianz StoneX can be capricious so may play into our hands but we do need to keep hold of the ball and cut the errors. Solid, steady, back to basics. Nothing fancy, just good old fashioned rugby. It’s enough to have to beat the other team without beating ourselves as well!

I'm hoping - nay praying! - for a win. It has to be!