News: LV: London Irish vs Northampton Saints - Match Preview
By SAINT_aitch
January 27 2011
After all the excitement of last weekend, Heineken Cup Number One seeds Northampton Saints travel to the Madejski Stadium on Sunday to face London Irish in the LV= Cup. Regular COYSDC contributor SAINT_aitch looks ahead...
Right, back to earth after a tres bonne journee to sunnier climes, oh wait a minute... it was blinking freezing down there!
I offered my services to the Ed’s earlier this week to write the preview for this match but almost immediately realised that I really haven’t been keeping an eye on the fortunes or in’s and out’s at London Irish for the past few weeks so had to spend a few hours traipsing through various pieces of news and fans forums to get up to date.
“Cor blimey!” thinks I, “They were out in Munster last weekend. Wonder how they got on” missing as I did their match and any highlights as my return from France got me in late on Sunday evening and I was dog tired so didn’t even try to catch up on any other news.
LONDON IRISH vs NORTHAMPTON SAINTS
LV= Cup: Sunday 30th January 2011. 15:00
MADEJSKI STADIUM, READING
MATCH PREVIEW
So, we are back to the matter of LV= cup action and frankly with the current positions and recent results for these two teams, I would not be surprised if London Irish are hungrier for a result this weekend than we are. I mean no disrespect to them but we are all aware of what each team has left to play for and Irish need to get back to some form if they are to make any further threat in the premiership this season.
It would however, appear that the score line from the Munster vs London Irish game (28-14) does not reflect how well Irish played, or indeed the fact that they were winning up until the last ten minutes when Munster did what Munster do best and came back to thwart the exiles brave attempt to exit the Lion’s Den with a win. Hats must be doffed to our Exiled cousins for making such a valiant attempt to take on the pressure of Thormond Park in such a way.
Saints will be going into this game satisfied in, not only their performance in a cold and hostile Castres Olympique cauldron, being top seeds going into the Heineken Cup quarter final and drawing the very impressive Ulster for the quarter finals but also knowing that we won’t be making any further trips across the channel this season after a wonderful semi final draw will give home country advantage to the winner of our meeting with Ulster. That and the fact that we are not playing Tigers in the lead up to the Heineken Cup Final all bodes quite well indeed. Saints can really turn the heat down when it comes to the LV= cup despite being the cup holders, and yes, I know that it was a terrific day out last season at Sixways when we beat Gloucester in the final, but we all know that we will need to rest even some of our fringe players for what could be a very busy end to the season.
Irish, on the other hand are really licking their wounds at the moment. With a whole gaggle of losses in the premiership after being in second spot earlier in the season, finishing bottom of their group in the Heineken Cup despite an impressive win at home to Munster at the start of their campaign and against Ospreys recently, a recent 8 week suspension handed out to Delon Armitage for alleged abusive actions against a doping official earlier this month and news that Seilala Mapusua is heading off to Japan at the end of the season.
Of course what both teams will be affected by over the coming weeks will be the annual get together of certain rugby playing European nations for bragging rights. Actually, fair to say that Saints are more affected by this than Irish are, (and no, that is not a dig at the fact they have a good contingent of Pacific Islanders and very few Irish players in the team, but it is a reflection on the Saints training and work ethic this term which has proved to be a real success with national management) but nonetheless they will be without James Buckland, Paul Hodgson, Steffon Armitage, and Alex Corbisiero who are all called into the Saxons squad, and whether Delon Armitage will be playing any rugby at all over the next few weeks will depend on an appeal to his ban.
I have to admit that I had Irish down as a serious challenger to honours at the start of this season with a good mixture of youth and experience but the wheels, if not yet coming off their wagon, are definitely in need of a bit of grease on the bearing perhaps. With the exception of a good win against Ospreys, Irish have only won once in their last twelve matches! They have also lost both of their LV=cup games this season so I’m not sure a win against us will help them in this competition either especially when they have to travel to Castle Grim and face the resurging Gloucester next week. Altogether it’s not looking too bright for them at the moment and if I were Mr Booth I may well want to concentrate all my efforts on climbing back up the premiership table than fighting a losing battle in the LV= cup.
I cannot see this game being a very well attended one frankly. I believe that both clubs have more important things on their minds than the LV= cup and with international call ups, some injuries, possible suspensions, and squad rotation it may well be no more than an opportunity to let some of the academy players loose to show their skills. That said, we know from experience that these types of situations often bring out the best in academy and ‘support team’ players and for all we know it could turn out to be a real rip roaring, proper rugby match with no holds barred and two sets of players who are gagging for a chance to prove their worth and get in the first XV.
Recent history when playing at the Madstad has turned in our favour after a very convincing win down there close to the end of last season which was memorable for being Mike Catt’s last competitive game. Prior to that however, we went 3 years without a win on their ground although we did well to ensure they always had a difficult match at FG. We have only ever played London Irish in a cup competition 4 times before this weekend and honours are even as far as that is concerned, although they did beat us in the Powergen Cup Final at HQ in 2002. Our last cup encounter with Irish was back in March 2003 when we convincingly won 38-9 at home.
Once again I’ll say that I always enjoy confrontations at the Madstad as it is a 20 minute train journey for me so I’ll pop into the Three Guineas before the match and maybe the Walkabout afterwards to enjoy a few beers. Hopefully I’ll see a few of you in either, or both.
Teams and score Predictions:
Well frankly, given much of what I have said above, I am not even going to try and guess the team sheets for this one. It could easily be a combination of first XV and academy players for London Irish, but I would think Saints will be pitching a team of mostly academy with a small sprinkling of first XV’ers.
I predict a London Irish win here which may boost their confidence a little and I doubt will worry Jim, Dorian, Grayse, or any Saints fans.
Enjoy the craic.
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Saint til I die
...we live in hope at li
judgement is better left to others, no sentence for either conspirator in this one i think!
will just be good to see saints & support
You are right, though H: this means more to London-ish than it does to Saints, which is sad indeed - given that we are the cup-holders.
I hope that this fact on its own will be enough to inspire our Academy to put one over the Exiles...
*I could agree with you - but then we'd both be wrong...*