EDINBURGH PREVIEW: Please post allmatch-related comment here

26th September 2020 - a day most Saracens’ supporters remember well. A time of COVID and uncertainty. Relegated to the Championship but with no prospect of competitive rugby there any time soon, Sarries are in limbo. COVID means that the final rounds of last season’s Heineken Cup remain to be played. Sarries have just done the impossible a week ago beating Leinster away from home to make it to the semi-final. A Sarries’ team shorn of the suspended Owen Farrell plus Lozowski, Isiekwe, Malins and Earl out on loan pulled off one of the most phenomenal wins in the club’s history to overcome the Irish champions in Dublin. But with just a week’s respite it is time to go again. 

And this time the French giants Racing 92 lie in wait. Surely this raggle-taggle “not a proper” rugby team can’t go all the way? Racing, who beat a weakened Sarries team at La Defense Arena just after the punishment was announced only for Sarries to gain their revenge back at Allianz. Racing 92 triumphant away from home over the mighty Clermont in the quarters. Racing bursting with superstars: Juan Imhoff, Finn Russell, Simon Zebo, Teddy Thomas, Virimi Vakatowa, Camille Chat, Wenceslas Laurent, Maxime Machenaud, Francois Trinh-Duc: Sarries left with rag, tag and bobtail. And it is all so very close with injuries to Duncan Taylor and more importantly Brad Barritt instrumental in a heart-breaking last minute Racing try to take the victory. The European fairy tale is over and now The Wicked Witch of The West was in control. Who knows when, or even if, Sarries will be back.

Fast forward to this Sunday and it all begins again. How we’ve missed the opportunity to pit ourselves against Europe’s finest. For once the cards have fallen kindly for Sarries. The sad demise of Wuss and Wasps has meant 2 weeks off for much of the team and even the survivors of Yoda’s suspect regime have been able to have a week’s break. Our visitors on Sunday are Edinburgh. So far they have had an indifferent season winning 4 and losing 5 which places them 6th in the United Rugby Championship (which incidentally mirrors the Premiership with Leinster on top, 9 out of 9). More importantly, it appears that defeat to Munster last weekend has also cost them the services of Darcy Graham who has been in sparkling form of late and Chris Dean. Edinburgh still boast some talent though including WP Nel at tighthead, former Chief’s lock Sam Skinner, along with former Sarrie Nick Auterac and talented backs Emiliano Boffelli, James Laing, Blair Kinghorn and Duhan Van Der Merwe.

Both teams will undoubtedly be as strong as possible - Mark McCall and Mike Blair have said as much. Both teams will want to lay down a marker in this rather strange incarnation of the Heineken Cup:- 4 pool games in 2 leagues of 12 to eliminate 8 clubs then straight into the last 16 with a one off knockout game so home advantage and a good seeding will be all important.

Rumour has it that Marco Riccioni is fit (after that rather worrying knee injury against Saints) and Nick Isiekwe also appears ready to return. Theo’s injury seems less serious than first thought so hopefully our injury crisis is starting to abate. I assume we will go with something like:

Mako, George, Riccioni, Itoje, Hunter-Hill, Theo, Earl, Billy, Van Zyl, Farrell, Maitland/Malins, Tompkins, Lozowski, Daly, Goode. With Potentially a much stronger bench than recently, Sarries should be in good shape.

Surely the might of the Premiership Leaders will be too much for Edinburgh but let us not forget, the men from North of the Border triumphed on their most recent visit to Barnet in last season’s Challenge Cup. I don’t think that will happen again however Sarries often struggle a bit with cohesion after a break - let’s hope they’re all in harmony come Sunday.

The referee is a new one on me: Nika Amashukeli from Georgia assisted by Vincent Blasco Baque and David Beun with Eric Gauzins in the truck (all 3 french). (Update – it seems Nika is a rising star of the Rugby Referee world. He was forced to retire from playing the game at the age of 20 following ankle and knee injuries and several bouts of concussion. He is just 27 and hails from Tbilisi. He was inspired to become a referee having watched Wayne Barnes and took part in a Referee exchange programme between Georgia and the IFRU, gaining experience in the All-Ireland League. He became the first Georgian referee to officiate at a tier 1 International when he took charge of Wales v Canada and later  Ireland v Italy and Ireland v Japan in 2021. He was awarded Ireland v South Africa this autumn and seems to have done OK given the complete lack of comment about him! Let’s hope that is the case on Sunday!