Tykes Preview

By Henry Harman
September 24 2004

Both Saracens and Leeds need a win this weekend. The visitors to Vicarage Road have lost three on the bounce. Those games were against three of the traditional ZP big boys, Gloucester, Leicester and the stuttering Champions Wasps.

During pre-season, looking over the early fixtures Tykes’ coach Phil Davies must have wondered what he’d done in a previous life to deserve that sort of start to the season.

On the opening day they were beaten 21-16 at Kingsholm. There they failed to take advantage of the visitors' lack of discipline, Gloucester having had Azam and McRae spending 10 minutes in the sin-bin. In fairness to Leeds, to take a point away from a visit to Glaws was an achievement in itself.

Next up were the Tigers who had been beaten the previous week by Sale Sharks. Leeds suffered the back-lash and were soundly beaten conceding five tries in the process, 42-20 the final score.

A more promising performance from Leeds in their most recent game against Wasps saw them come close in what was seen as a lacklustre game by many but eventually fell 9-13.

Tim Stimpson will make his first appearance for his new side from the bench on Sunday, joining quite a bit of quality in this Leeds side. Much has been spoken about Tom Palmer, for the last couple of seasons, when not injured, he has been touted as the next big thing in the English second row and in the line-out this weekend Mr Ibanez will have to be spot on with his jumpers as Palmer will be a menace. As will former Sarrie Stuart Hooper who makes his first start this term. Elsewhere up-front Tykes stalwart Mike Shelley is a combative loosehead who returned to the side last week to good effect and Mark Regan will always bring a fighting spirit to any side.

Saracens need to be wary of the Leeds back-line that possess the pace and power to cause quite a few problems if they are allowed too much ball. Centre Andre Snyman is a big ball carrier and his centre partner Phil Christophers has the ability to do brilliant things. In David Rees (100 league appearances this weekend) and Diego Albanese they have a couple of good finishers.

Saracens, as we know, need a win to try and put their promising season back on track, last weeks performance at Sale Sharks highlighted a couple of causes for concern, the main point being that Sarries are likely to struggle without a recognised fly-half other than Nicki Little. The Fijian has struggled to get into his stride this season and to overcome Leeds he’ll need to have a good game.

Casualties from the loss to Sale Sharks last week are Cobus Visagie (groin), Iain Fullarton (Ankle) and Mark Bartholomeusz (Ankle). Also missing will be Thomas Castaignede who has not recovered from his hamstring injury. Lock Simon Raiwalui is almost match fit but takes a place on the bench as a precaution.

So into the side comes Kris Chesney at lock alongside Captain Hugh Vyvyan who moves to the second row with Taine Randell reverting to Number 8. Young open-side Dave Seymour starts with HRHRH on the blind-side. Ben Broster takes over from Visagie in what could be the start of a mini run in the side for the young tight head. He will pack down alongside Rapael Ibanez in the French legend’s first start of the season.

In the backs Tykes old-boy Dan Scarbrough switches to full-back with Paul Bailey starting on the left wing, Robbie Kydd moves to the bench.

Saracens –

1 Kevin Yates
2 Raphael Ibanez
3 Ben Broster
4 Kris Chesney
5 Hugh Vyvyan
6 Richard Hill
7 David Seymour
8 Taine Randell
9 Kyran Bracken
10 Nicki Little
11 Paul Bailey
12 Kevin Sorrell
13 Ben Johnston
14 Richard Haughton
15 Dan Scarbrough

16 Matt Cairns
17 Nick Lloyd
18 Simon Raiwalui
19 Ben Russell
20 Morgan Williams
21 Dan Harris
22 Robbie Kydd

Leeds Tykes -

1. Mike Shelley
2. Mark Regan
3. Gavin Kerr
4. Stuart Hooper
5. Tom Palmer (c)
6. Jon Dunbar
7. Richard Parks
8. Colm Rigney
9. Alan Dickens
10. Gordon Ross
11. Tom Biggs
12. Andre Snyman
13. Phil Christophers
14. David Rees
15. Diego Albanese

16. Michael Cusack
17. Rob Rawlinson
18. Chris Murphy
19. Alix Popham
20. Mark McMillan
21. Chris Bell
22. Tim Stimpson