Saints v Chiefs preview
black_otter
By black_otter
October 6 2011
black_otter looks forward to Exeter Chiefs visit to Franklin's Gardens in round 6 of the Aviva Premiership season 2011/12
Northampton Saints v Exeter Chiefs
match preview by black_otter
A look at the AP table as it currently stands could lead you to the conclusion that Exeter’s next fixture away to Northampton Saints should hold little fear for the Chiefs:
Harlequins 5 5 0 0 22
Saracens 5 4 0 1 18
Exeter Chiefs 5 3 0 2 15
Sale Sharks 5 3 0 2 15
Gloucester Rugby 5 3 0 2 13
Bath Rugby 5 3 0 2 13
London Irish 5 2 0 3 12
London Wasps 5 2 0 3 10
Worcester Warriors 5 2 0 3 9
Leicester Tigers 5 1 0 4 7
Northampton Saints 5 1 0 4 5
Newcastle Falcons 5 1 0 4 5
but that would not be the full story, by any stretch. Shorn of players to the RWC (Tonga’uiha, Hartley, Lawes, Woods, Ashton, Artemyev & Foden), and with a couple unavailable thru injury, it would be a colossal mistake to underestimate the Saints, who can still call on the likes of Doran-Jones, Mujati, Clark, Dowson, Dickson, Myler, Lamb, Downey and Clarke, with the canny Jim Mallinder directing the ship.
Saints started the season with a tight home win over Glaws (26-24), next falling to an away loss to in-form Quins (26-13), then a narrow home defeat to a smarting Irish who were looking for their first victory of the campaign (13-14), another away loss to an overhauled Sharks’s side at Edgeley Park (29-21), and finally succumbing to the boot of Andy Goode at Sixways, going down 12-3 in a disappointing game against Wuss. Make no mistake, Saints will be smarting and eager for a win against the Chiefs in front of their faithful at Franklins Gardens.
Weathering the initial storm could be the key to Exe success in this fixture, so a stout defence will be a necessity from the off, and our pack will need to match (or hopefully better!) the Saints in the opening exchanges. Strong in both set-piece areas, Saints have struggled at the breakdown at times, incurring the wrath of the officials on a number of occasions – an area that Exe’s back-row trio will surely look to exploit and achieve dominance. Nacho Mieres will need to be on song with the boot to take advantage of any 3-point opportunities that will come our way and to keep the scoreboard ticking over. Without their rapier duo of Ashton and Foden out wide, Saints can look a little stodgy in attack, and their defence has struggled most when opposition teams have upped the pace of the game three or more phases into a sequence of possession.
It’ll be interesting to see how Exe fare on the injury front – there’s talk of Josh Tatupu being fully recovered and hope that props Hoani Tui and John Andress will be fit in time (sadly it sounds as tho Pirate-loanee Alan Paver could be out for up to 4 weeks after his brief, but impressive cameo last week). It might look like a contest between 3rd and 11th in the table, but I’m pretty sure that Rob will have the players fired up to expect an all-out onslaught from Northampton.
Oggy, oggy, oggy, Chiefs, Chiefs, Chiefs
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Have watched a couple of their matches on the box and seen highlights of the others.
Against Sale they appeared to be in control first half but discipline and two yellows let them down in the second. The Worcester game was dire and decided by Andy Goode's boot.
If we have a full complement in the front row and Tatupu is back on the wing we stand a good chance against a team low on confidence and missing some fantastic players to the RWC.
Myself and SWMBO will be there to cheer us on!
Come on you Chiefs.
4 points before the cup break would crown a superb start to the season
if we can do reasonably well in the next batch of premiership games and then push on during the 6 nations who knows what may happen
but first things first saints will be up for this one !
we have Greg Garner with the whistle on Saturday and the weather forcast is for 14 °C, light rain with wind WSW, 11 mph with gust up to 22 mph (sounds pretty light compared to Sandy Park
)
really looking forward to visiting one of my favourite away locations.
Quote:sounds like shorts thenMoorsman
nice preview black-otter
we have Greg Garner with the whistle on Saturday and the weather forcast is for 14 °C, light rain with wind WSW, 11 mph with gust up to 22 mph (sounds pretty light compared to Sandy Park
really looking forward to visiting one of my favourite away locations.
