Luck Shouldn't Come Into It

By John Jennings
February 20 2005

At the start of this season, Saracens’ stated objectives were to finish in the top half of the premiership table and to qualify for the Heineken Cup. Two of the four possible routes to qualification, winning the Parker Pen or the Powergen Cup, have now gone.

This week’s visitors knocked us out of the Powergen Cup four weeks ago, when Glen Jackson had a kicking nightmare and Mapletoft a dream match. The exiles also gave us a 20-3 mauling at the Madstad in the match that saw Richard Hill put out of action for most of the season.

The two remaining ways of qualifying for the Heineken are to finish the Zurich season in the top three (not impossible, but certainly not yet very probable) or to win the Wildcard playoffs that take place between 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th. Having just crept up to 6th and with three very tough matches to finish the season, we need to stamp our authority on games against clubs below us in the league, especially at home.

We have won our last three league matches against Bath and Northampton away and Newcastle at home, and indeed we haven’t lost in the ZP since we played Leicester in November, but Irish are facing the possibility of relegation and must target this game as a win. They are sitting two places (and 8 points) below us in the table, but the Irish have beaten us too often at home for us to be complacent. They will be up for it!

We can expect to see some big battles in the lineout, where Strudwick, Casey and Kennedy are excellent poachers, and will give Fullarton, Chesney and Vyvyan plenty to think about. In the scrum, we should be able to exert some real pressure through the superb Cobus Visagie, and Messrs Yates and Cairns. Kyran Bracken has played very well when not broken and Glen Jackson is easing into the role of controlling the game from Fly Half.

Sarries will welcome the return on the bench of the big Fijian lock, Simon Raiwalui, and look for him to make a big impression on the Irish midfield in the second half, and with Dan Harris at inside centre and winger Tevita Vaikona looking more comfortable in the 15-man game every time he plays, the Men in Black have plenty of powerful ball carriers.

Mike Catt has enough experience to make life very tricky for Harris, however, and with the likes of Delon Armitage, Staniforth and Bishop, London Irish can punish any weakness in our defence. Whether Mapletoft or Everitt does the kicking, we must expect any penalties we give away in their half to be punished, and some would say that was the essence of their game last time we met. However, with the creativity of the ever mercurial Thomas Castagneide at 13 and Mark Bartholomeusz an elusive, attacking full back, the crowd will be calling for a hatful of tries and the first victory of the season over the Irish.

Perhaps it is significant that the last two times we have met, and lost, we were playing in white. Perhaps this will be “third time lucky”. In reality, we should not be looking for four-leafed clovers or relying on Lady Luck. If we have pretensions to competing in next year’s Heineken Cup, we need the 15 players on the field to perform as a team: passionate and committed, but at the same time disciplined and confident. And we need the crowd to unite, to support and inspire them.