Saracens v Newcastle, 27/03/2011
By Leipziger
March 25 2011
After the ecstacy and despair of the LV= Cup in the past two weeks, it’s back to the bread and butter of the Premiership this weekend and potentially our last visit to Vicarage Road.
The natives may be revolting over Saracens’ proposed move to Copthall in north London, but the club is still trying to drum up support and claims have received a lot already. Personally, I don’t like Watford, and I don’t like the big yellow beast that is Vicarage Road. About the only thing exciting about it is the wooden stand, and that isn’t even open anymore.
Actually I tell a lie, the Red Lion was a canny pub before it closed down. At least we have the Irish pub around the corner with the beer garden where we sang with some Dutch lads before the European quarter-final the other year. And then there’s Greggs and Wetherspoons in the town centre, so actually maybe Watford’s not too bad. If it could get rid of the stadium and install a different one.
To be fair to Saracens, it’s not like they haven’t been trying to move. The South African investors reportedly looked at Fulham as a new ground – wonder if they’d have much use for the Neutral section? They have also played a few games at Wembley in the past year and a half, struggling to half-fill the stadium, and played the USA in the City in November.
No signs of playing on a different continent yet, although I wouldn’t mind heading back to Cape Town if Sarries decided to play us down there.
Sunday marks almost a year since our last visit to Saracens, the game that should have but didn’t quite seal Steve Bates’s fate as Falcons gaffer. You know you’re in trouble when a hooker scores from halfway, as special as Schalk Brits is, and even with the home side many, many points ahead in the second half their coaching staff were still angry when their team messed up, while Bates stood silently on the touchline. Although Jimmy Gopperth’s boot had given us the lead, it mattered little by 80 minutes when we had lost 58-15.
Brits was sin-binned late in our home game against the Fez Headz earlier this season for a high tackle but a last-second penalty by Alex Goode have the visitors a tight 13-15 win after a rush of blood to Tim Ryan’s head in front of our posts. With Ryan not having played for the first team since November, I’m sure he will be suitably punished at the end of the season.
Saracens have now beaten us in four successive matches, going back just under two years. In terms of victories at Vicarage Road, there have been just two so far, in December 2001 and just after Christmas 2007. In front of 17,000 in Watford, the TV referee was asked to adjudicate on three tries and gave them all – our two were correctly allowed, Saracens’, by Neil de Kock, was not. However, after Hugh Vyvyan had given Sarries a late lead, the crucial decision about Jamie Noon’s score was right and we won 19-22, our only away Premiership win in 2007/08.
Following on from the preview on the Saracens’ site, it is interesting to look at our starting team from that day just over three years ago: all of the backs have moved on, and two of the forwards are still at KP (as players).
I wonder what Alan Tait would be able to do with that team, with the obvious additions of Hudson and Hogg. Perhaps he could do better than John Fletcher did. Perhaps not.
All any of us can do is do our best with what we have, and we probably won’t know how vital Sunday’s game will be until after Sale have played Leeds in Stockport tonight. We are currently seven points ahead of the Cardigans and two behind Sale with a game in hand on both.
A win on Sunday will either lift us into tenth or move us at least ten points ahead of Leeds, personally I will hoping for Sale to utterly destroy and demoralise Leeds tonight to help ensure we don’t go down.
Then beating Saracens, not easy or even likely but undoubtedly possible, will be a big step towards us staying up. I reckon there will be plenty of twists left in the battle for survival, what will the first weekend in the home straight throw up?
Rikki Sheriffe will make his Falcons debut on the left wing opposite Alex Tait, who moves to make way for Tom Catterick at full-back. James Hall makes a second league start and Joel Hodgson could make his Premiership debut from the bench.
15 Tom Catterick
14 Alex Tait
13 Luke Eves
12 James Fitzpatrick
11 Rikki Sheriffe
10 Jimmy Gopperth
9 Chris Pilgrim
1 Jon Golding
2 Matt Thompson
3 James Hall
4c James Hudson
5 Andrew van der Heijden
6 Tim Swinson
7 Will Welch
8 Ally Hogg
16 Rob Vickers
17 Grant Shiells
18 Kieran Brookes
19 Mark Wilson
20 Alex Gray
21 Micky Young
22 Tane Tu’ipulotu
23 Joel Hodgson
Saracens have named a strong side, no doubt looking for a repeat of last season’s result to help them to a good finish in the league:
15 Alex Goode
14 David Strettle
13 Chris Wyles
12 Brad Barritt
11 James Short
10 Owen Farrell
9 Neil de Kock
1 Matt Stevens
2 Schalk Brits
3 Carlos Nieto
4c Steve Borthwick
5 Hayden Smith
6 Justin Melck
7 Andy Saull
8 Ernst Joubert
16 Jamie George
17 Jared Saunders
18 Petrus du Plessis
19 Hugh Vyvyan
20 Kelly Brown
21 Richard Wigglesworth
22 Adam Powell
23 Noah Cato
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Seems that our 7 point cushion should be safe for another week!
