LAST CHANCE SALOON FOR THE CHALLENGE CUP

This Sunday, Sarries return to Europe. The spate of COVID draws in the last round have left this pool unaffected given it was the week the 2 french clubs were drawn together although the Irish/Brive game in R2 was a COVID casualty – almost certainly 2 points gained for Brive and potentially 3 lost to Irish.  Irish top the Group on 11 (from 3 games) followed by Brive (6 from 2) Pau (5 from 3 – their points difference boosted by the “28-0” COVID win over Sarries) and Edinburgh (5 from 2). Despite the difficult start (the home defeat to Edinburgh and the COVID defeat to Pau) all is not lost, owing to the vagaries of this competition whereby 3rd place will secure progress to the next round and even 4th place could be enough! (In fact a home win over Irish and an away win over Brive - who don’t seem to be the greatest side - would leave Sarries with 9/10/11 points (depending on bonus points) which should secure 3rd place. It would take something pretty extraordinary to finish any higher (I don’t see Edinburgh losing to either of the French teams – if they did that could put the cat among the pigeons!)

Irish are pretty much certain of qualification so it will be interesting to see what sort of team they put out. Sarries really need a win as a minimum if they have any interest in progressing (and I really hope they do) but after the league game between the 2 sides a few weeks ago, will not be taking the Oirish lightly! Irish have had a bit of an odd time of it since that last gasp draw at StoneX.  Irish were on a bit of a run, having beaten Saints and Sarries in the Premiership Cup, Quins and Newcastle in the Premiership and Pau in the Challenge Cup. Their game against Brive was cancelled and they lost to Wasps on Boxing Day. Their Premiership game against Bath was also cancelled (they were awarded a 4 point win) then they managed a very late 1 point victory over Edinburgh last weekend when down to 14 men. Since the draw with Irish, Sarries form has been mixed beating Quins and losing to Irish in the Cup, beating Sale & losing to Exeter in the Premiership, losing to Edinburgh (on the pitch) and Pau (COVID rules) in the Challenge Cup then  beating Worcester on Boxing Day and Saints the following week before a narrow home defeat to Gloucester a couple of weeks ago.

I assume Irish will be missing Augustin Creevy following his Red Card last weekend. Irish have some in-form players. Their promising young full back Ollie Hassell-Collins has earned himself a call-up to Eddie’s England squad. Paddy Jackson is the form Irish fly half right now (although his previous misdemeanours almost certainly mean his international career is finished). Coach Les Kiss mentioned how well Irish play when down to 14 (drawing with us and beating Edinburgh in recent weeks) so the moral is probably not to hope for any more red cards!

Sarries have had a week off and everyone has had a break. It has been widely touted that Faz will start. Jamie, Max and Maro are also in the England squad, Nick Tompkins in the Welsh Squad and Andy Christie in the Scotland Squad so this will be their last opportunity with the Men in Black for a while. Jackson Wray and Aled Davies are definitely out as is Alec Clarey & Ralph Adams-Hale (who should be back early Feb), Duncan Taylor (hopefully March) and Marco Riccioni (out for the season). No mention of whether Billy is available. I would expect we will see a pretty strong line up on Sunday, at least I hope so, we can still win this trophy! After a week off, the team really needs to get back to winning ways!  Our referee is Adam Jones (Wales) assisted by Andrew Cole (not that one I assume!) and Paul Haycock (both Irish ?????) Leo Colgan, also Irish, is the TMO.

I really hope Sarries want this enough to get a win but it won’t be easy. At least the weather should be kinder than for our last game.