Sarries v Saints preview

By Henry Harman
October 9 2004

Saints’ new coach Alan Solomons has made some very solid signings for this season, the big names are lead by new skipper, panto-villain Corne Krige. He is joined by man-mountain tighthead prop Robbie Kempson, locks Selbourne Boome and Damien Browne.

In the backs he has recruited wingers Wylie Human (what a great name!) from Bath, John Rudd from Waspies and centre Marc Stcherbina from Biarritz.

Saints had a good start to the season with wins over Bath (29-14 at Franklins Gardens) and Harlequins (13-45 at the Stoop) but have stuttered since. They were painfully half-hearted against Gloucester in their first defeat of the season at Franklins Gardens (18-12) and went on to be beaten by the in-form local rivals Leicester Tigers at Welford Road (32-13) and by London Wasps back at the ‘Garden last weekend (9-10).

So, played 5, won 2, lost 3. Just like Sarries right? Well, not quite. Aside from the fact that the Saints have managed to pick up three more bonus points than the Men in Black, they have also had a very tough start to the season, ‘Quins aside. Bath, Gloucester, Leicester and Wasps will all be there-or-thereabouts at the top end of the table come the end of the season and it’s an incredibly tough task to take a new team and be expected to win all of these games. Saints will bounce back.

Saints have got class pretty-much all over the pitch, all they need to do is click, the likes of Bruce Reihana and Mark Robinson can be match winners and if their fat boys get on top up-front then Saints will take some stopping.

Last week against London Irish was another game to forget for Saracens, the team’s defeat was over-shadowed by the terrible news that Richard Hill will miss most, if not all, of the rest of the season. The loss to Oirish at MadStad followed a very poor show against Leeds at Vicarage Road. Things must improve.

As Head Coach Rod Kafer said this week, the players must step up and prove their worth. It’s a lot to ask from the likes of fan-favourite Dave Seymour, the young open-side who has rocketed into Sarries first XV and effectively is filling the shoes of the mighty Hilly. Same goes for Ben Broster, the tighthead with bags of potential who has to fill the shoes of Cobus Visagie, one of the best tighthead props in the league. But Kafer is spot-on, the players must get out there and show why they are deserving of their place in the starting XV. To coin a phrase ‘Nowhere to run to, nowhere to hide.’

On Sunday Seymour will, alongside Taine Randell and Hugh Vyvyan, be up against a very good Saints back-row in Darren Fox, Corne Krige and Andrew Blowers. The game could be won and lost here. Sarries recent problems seem to have stemmed from the lack of control at the base of the ruck, maul and scrum. Saints will have noticed this and it will be targeted.

Sarries will be very pleased to see the bearded monster Simon Raiwalui returning to the starting line-up, this frees up the skipper, Hugh Vyvyan, to revert to his preferred position of No8.

Sarries are also boosted by the return of Mark Bartholomeusz at fly-half. In fairness to Barty (and I was one of the ‘Why are we playing him at 10?’ brigade) we have played a lot better in the two games that he has been involved in than those that he hasn’t.

Elsewhere Dan Harris makes his Sarries debut in the centres alongside Thomas Castaignede. Harris has been out of action for over a year and after a couple of impressive ‘A’ League games he will be absolutely desperate to get stuck in. The only question mark looming over him is his defence; he must be fully prepared to deal with the impressive ‘Saintsman’ Stcherbina.

Dan Scarbrough also comes back into the side at full-back after recovering from an elbow injury.

Can Sarries pull out the win? I would love to see it and if the ball bounces our way in the early exchanges it might happen but sadly I can only see a very spirited loss by 8 or 9 points.

Saracens: Scarbrough; Bailey, Castaignede, Harris, Johnston; Bartholomeusz, Bracken; Yates, Cairns, Broster, Chesney, Raiwalui, Randell, Seymour, Vyvyan.

Replacements: Ibanez, Lloyd, Skirving, Russell, Rauluni, Sorrell, Haughton.

Northampton: Reihana, Human, Tucker, Stcherbina, Clarke, Drahm, Robinson; Smith, Thompson, Kempson, Boome, Lord, Fox, Krige (capt), Blowers.

Replacements: Richmond, Morris, Browne, Seely, Howard, Cohen, Rudd