News: HC: Northampton Saints vs Ulster Rugby - Match Preview
By SAINT_aitch
April 6 2011
It’s the match we have all been waiting for, for what seems an eternity, the one that will define how good a European team we are, the one that, after doing so well in the pool stages, will hopefully take us to a stage in this championship where we have not been for many years, a Heineken Cup Semi Final. Ladies and Gentlemen:
NORTHAMPTON SAINTS vs ULSTER RUGBY
HEINEKEN CUP QUARTER FINAL: Sunday 10th April 15:00
Stadium:MK, Milton Keynes
MATCH PREVIEW
It’s a funny old game this rugby, you can be sampling the good life and perpetually walking around with a Cheshire cat grin on your face for weeks on end after following your team around the country and to some extremities of Europe watching them, almost casually, ‘putting one over’ all who stand before them, only for that grin to melt and be replaced by the chagrin of desperation as you struggle to understand how those teams you put to the sword earlier in the season, some on their own patch of grass, turn up and give your team a damn good hiding, then for that grin to start creeping back to your face again later in the season when the chosen ones amongst your particular team who had been seconded for some bragging rights at International level return.
Frankly, I could do without this secondment repeating if this is the sort of unhealthy reaction it has on my blood pressure. Hell, the Saints run of losses affected my attitude to work, my home life, I even turned down the opportunity of going out for a few beers with the lads at one point. On hearing this, my wife put her hand to my forehead to see if there was a need to call medical assistance.
Well it seems that our returning heroes have had the desired effect and once again, Saints are digging in back in the hallowed premiership top four slots. All very well, but we haven’t faced any ‘foreign’ opposition since that cold January weekend in Castres so this week, after an enjoyable few weeks of resurgence, we face an Ulster team who are seen as the underdogs in this season’s Heineken Cup competition quarter finals with a lowly ERC European ranking of 19.
I mean, lets face it, on paper all of the advantages are in our favour aren’t they? We are at home, we have the recent experience of this level of the competition, we have a full fit squad on duty........Well, all I can say to that is, watch this space! There is justifiable reason why Ulster have made it to the quarter final and as for our home advantage well, we are not officially at home but some 24 miles away at the home of MK Dons. Our recent experience at this level of the competition is not such a good one, but it has been 12 years since Ulster got this far in the competition, at which time they went on to win it and they are not shy in telling the world that they are not satisfied with simply reaching the quarter final. They have set their sights one step further.
The fully fit squad bit is about right, although the Ulster squad is looking pretty good too with the massive BJ Botha in the front row and the influential Ian Humphreys, formerly of the ‘Pooh Corner’ parish, at fly half now both back in action after fairly long lay-offs, Humphreys scoring a brace of tries in last week’s Celtic clash with Scarlets. Even without these two, Ulster’s recent run of six wins in the Magners league has propelled them to second in the league, eleven points behind Munster and two points ahead of the chasing pack.
The return of Humphreys will allow Ulster coach Brian McLoughlin to keep the points machine, Springbok Ruan Pienaar in the scrum half position that he prefers this week and Saints will need to be on their guard from this man. Time after time I have heard of him winning the game for them. About the only good news, team wise, that we can take from the Ulster preferred line-up is that Ireland flanker Stephen Ferris will be missing due to injury but stand by for some tough old clashes especially in the front row with Botha opposite Tiny and Ireland hooker Rory Best up against Dylan. This pack will not be the pushover we have experienced recently.
Our backs won’t have an easy ride either with opponents such as winger Andrew Trimble with 32 caps for Ireland facing off against Digger and has five tries to his name in all competitions this season. Paddy Wallace in the centre with 26 Ireland caps and a reputation as a playmaker has scored thirty points this season and over four hundred points in his time at the club and Simon Danielli facing up to Chris Ashton with 29 Scotland caps has far fewer tries than our Flash but he does have a penchant for scoring in the Heineken Cup.
Ulster’s Heineken Cup campaign saw them in a pool where they were really not expected to proceed from the pool stages. If you had laid odds on the two teams who would get through to the quarter finals, it probably would have been Biarritz and Bath. Ulster however where having none of this and beating Bath home and away and sneaking a win against Biarritz at home in early January is what sealed the next stage for them. Ironically, they actually won more games in their pool stages than Biarritz, but the French team capitalised on five additional bonus points to officially top the group.
Nevertheless, coach McLoughlin has stated this week that "Six wins on the trot in the Magners league is great and we are exactly where we want to be at the moment. Now we have to focus on nothing else other than the Heineken Cup and Northampton Saints.
"We want this to be an enjoyable week for the players because we haven't been in this position for 12 years. We want to go to Milton Keynes and give it a real blast”.
As for the Saints, well I’m sure they are relishing the opportunity to put right last year’s quarter final exit to Munster and to do it in style. After an unbeaten run in Europe this term, Saints have qualified as the top seed after the pool stages and have shown determination and grit where necessary to put Edinburgh, Cardiff and Castres to the sword.
One man who is really looking forward to this weekend will be our own Roger (Sergeant) Wilson who left Ulster after 6 years to make an impression on the Saints faithful of being a very consistent powerhouse to our pack and supporting runners.
Honours are even in the two previous encounters between our clubs at one game apiece although the benefits from both these two games went Saints way. October 2002 saw a very one sided match as Paul Grayson racked up 22 points in our 32:9 win at a wet and windy Franklins Gardens and despite losing 16:13 in our meeting at Ravenhill in January 2003 the second half, Ben Cohen try meant that Ulster lost out on proceeding from the Heineken Cup group stages. Quite how Saints managed to get to within 3 points of the home team at all in that game is surprising itself with three of the Saints team seeing a yellow card in the game, Cohen being one of them.
We can expect a good turnout this week as we all descend onto Milton Keynes and reports from the Saints are that tickets have sold very well despite some 1500 being returned by Ulster and the ERC. I still expect there to be a few thousand red and white Ulster fans joining us in the makeshift village, and if they are half as pleasant as other Irish team supporters who have graced our turf, then it should be a fantastic occasion with two loud and proud sets of fans ready for a terrific on field battle.
So there you have it, I hope that whatever the result at the end of this particular eighty minutes that the record crowd at Stadium:MK leave with a smile on their faces and with some new friends made. The weather promises to be better than our previous encounters and with the right noise from both sets of fans, this should be a match to remember for all the right reasons.
Team and score Predictions:
15 – Foden
14 – Ashton
13 – Clarke
12 – Downey
11 – Diggin
10 –Myler
9 – Dickson
1 – Tiny
2 – Hartley
3 – Mujati
4 – Lawes
5 – Day
6 – Clark
7 – Wood
8 – Wilson
Saints by the skin of their teeth!
Come on you Saints!
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My teeth will have very little skin left by Sunday evening!
Getting a bit excited now!
David L
What if there were no hypothetical questions?
- Live wrong and preposterously
St Ken, Morrisey? Would you be kind enough to post a link on the Ulster board?
Ta muchly.
"It's not the despair, Saints, I can take the despair. It's the hope I can't stand."
here: http://www.uafc.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12671
David L
What if there were no hypothetical questions?
- Live wrong and preposterously
The problem playing Ulster is that there is no track record to judge them against. If we were up against Leicester, we'd know what to expect, but to be honest, Ulster really are an unknown to me. The games I have seen recently have been scrappy affairs, but they've managed to win them and that is something we used to be able to do.
This is really tight and nervy, not felt like this about a game for a very long time.
Clark or Dowson, Digger or Bruce...are the only questionmarks I have.
No alcohol for January. I'm a dryathlete in aid of cancer research.
Dryathlon