Leicester vs Sale Cup match preview

Purrrrrr!
By Stuart Hall
November 12 2003

It's time once more to put aside the exclusivity of the premiership for the egalitarianism of the cup, where the lowly take on (and dream of overcoming) the mighty; where teams find themselves playing in unfamiliar territory and on strange pitches. This week, Sale go to Leicester.

Ah, Leicester. For so long the team to beat, yet this season strangely subdued. A league position of 10th after 9 matches (won 3, drawn 1, lost 5) suggests that the doom-merchants who predicted chaos as a result of the World Cup may well have been correct.

With the backbone of their team in the Antipodes, can the rump of the club pull out a performance to match those of yore? There is, indeed a much-vaunted depth to the Leicester Tigers squad, yet one can only plumb the depths to a certain level before bottoming out. Is there more to it than simply having enough experienced men to step up to the mark and put themselves forward? Johnson, the talisman, is weaving his magic for his country: is there someone to adequately take on that mantle for his club - an amulet, perhaps?

Let us never dismiss Leicester - they have proved time and again that they are capable of doing the job, no matter who might be riven from their midst, and they are well-versed in the dark arts of match-winning.

And what of Sale? Such high-flyers last season, only to be shot down at the end by the loss of their own talisman, Sir Charles Hodgson, and this season languishing mid-table (won4, drawn 1, lost 4). But now the recalcitrant cruciate has succumbed to the blandishments of modern medicine and the play-maker has returned to the side. The previously-forlorn backs are rejuvenated and sprint blithely about the field of play to the consternation of the opposition. With, perhaps, the return of Redpath's mainspring driving Hodgson's escapement, could Sale achieve the dreamed-of and register two wins at Welford Road in a season?

This could well be the game of this round of the cup. Unless one of the others is better.

No prediction - only a hope.