Has there been a better time to win at Kingsholm?

Stood in the shed...
By John Jennings
April 29 2005

Unless you are one of those people who successfully call “Edge” when tossing a coin, I would advise you to prepare for next Friday at Vicarage Road – and wait for Saturday evening to find out who we’ll meet there.

Is this the last match of the season for Sarries? It could be, but only in certain rather particular circumstances. If Leeds are relegated, we have already qualified for the Heineken Cup, but this would need Wuss to beat Saints by less than 7 points and Quins to beat Sale, as well as Leeds to lose to Bath. If Leeds beat Bath and we win at Castle Grim with a bonus point, we go 4th, and qualify directly for the HC, our best chance of an early but very happy end to the season, but if Sale ALSO lose to Quins we go 3rd and play Tiggers or Pests (away) for the Championship.


So does this fixture have much point to it? Well, we could meet Glaws again in the Wildcard, but more importantly, we have built up a great head of steam and we don’t want to have a soft game and get the losing habit. We want to win even if the world doesn’t depend on it (and after all, 4 tries against Glaws and Bath losing to Leeds by 8 or more is not such a long shot anyway).

Saracens have never beaten Glaws at Kingsholm. Will there ever be a better time to break that depressing record? Clearly Gloucester are short of confidence with a fairly poor track record over recent months, nearly losing to London Irish (well, we know all about that problem) and getting hammered by both Leeds and Sale.

Sarries meanwhile have got over their loss to Pests and will be delighted with the return of Cobus Visagie and Taine Randell. Both MTC and TMC are in tremendous form, Tevi just gets better and better, King Richard is back in the groove, the lineout is functioning as well as the scrum and the team is showing a half-decent level of confidence and self-belief, something that was visibly absent at the start of the season.

At the time of writing, Gloucester have not yet announced their team. They will be hoping for some of their injured players – Vickery for example - to return to the fray. They have some impressive people to call on, the likes of Forrester, Sinbad, Garvey, Gomarsall and Hazell, but I believe that the side Dimes has named has the potential to match any side in the Premiership. While the odds are against this being the last match of the season, my bet would be that the team treats it as a massive game and goes all out for the win, and if that happens, Sarries supporters will be the only voices to be heard in The Shed.