OIRISH PREVIEW: please post all match-related comments here

By The Saracens
April 20 2023

And so we reach the last home game of the regular season, a game heavily marketed by the club as “Family Fun Day” and “Local Derby”. Of course Sarries already have a home semi in the bag although 3 points are still required to be certain of finishing in top spot (and in theory at least an easier semi-final). Irish on the other hand still have it all to do but know that if they win their last 2 games they are into the play-offs. Irish have been something of a bogey side for Saracens in recent times. They won the reverse fixture just before Christmas after a pretty abject Saracen’s performance, and last season beat us at the Community Stadium and conjured up that remarkable 34 all draw at StoneX with 14 men. They also thumped us in the Premiership Cup both this season and last. In fact the only success in recent times was a win in the Challenge Cup last season. Irish haven’t played a meaningful match since 25th March when they beat Saints at home. They’ve had plenty of time to rest their squad and prepare for this one.

Irish have some talent in their ranks especially in their backs: Henry Arundel, Ollie Hassell-Collins, Paddy Jackson, Ben Loader, Rory Jennings, Benhard Janse Van Rensburg to name a few although unfortunately Sarries’ recruit Tom Parton still appears to be on the injured list. In the forwards there is “only” the likes of Augustin Creevy, Api Ratuniyarawa, So’otala Fa’aso’o (is there a rugby player with more apostrophies) and of course Tom Pearson to worry about although it appears there will be no “hat-trick” of red cards for Adam Coleman as he is apparently injured.

So what will Smally do? He needs a maximum of 3 points from this one to secure top spot. How much are we bothered about finishing first with the home semi already in the bag? In theory top place should provide a slightly easier route to the final but to be the best, you have to beat the best. A win against Irish could well turn out to be a dress-rehearsal for the semi final. So do we stick with the youngsters who did amazingly well last week? Or bring some of the other guys back? I suspect a mix – maybe the likes of Earl and Goode will get the week off but some of the others will be back: maybe Loz & Maitland, although we need to conserve our slender back-row resources. Manu has probably done enough to get an encore and maybe a last hurrah for Ruben? Probably a very strong bench though just in case. No Duncan of course, but will we see Daly back? Next week everyone gets a break and I rather think we might take a pretty much full-strength side to Bath. We don’t want everyone going off the boil – we know we don’t play so well after a break. Also winning is a habit – a habit we’ve lost a bit recently and it would be good to end the (regular) home season with a win.

The referee is Adam Leal assisted by Andrew Jackson and John Meredith. Weather forecast is sunshine and showers (oh joy!) welcome to the summer of 23!

OIRISH PREVIEW: please post all match-related comments here

Posted by: TheSaracens.com (IP Logged)

Date: 20/04/2023 13:36

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2023:05:11:11:28:34 by Darraghgirl.