GP: London Irish vs Northampton Saints Preview

No to hell with that, we stuffed the Maul Machine by a humungous score which the whole world now knows about, due to The Sky Empire preferring to show ‘lil old us, rather than some Super 14 Tosh (copyright P. Flatt esq)

But how will we fare this weekend, when the fixture clash with Six Nations Internationals deprives us of our star wingers, Ben Cohen and Sean “Four Tries” Lamont. Sadder circumstances also mean that Saints are without the third member of one of the best back threes around, as Bruce Reihana flies home due to a family bereavement.

Steve Thompson is also on duty for his country so both Saints captains are absent for the vital (aren’t they all?) clash against Irish with valuable points on offer for both teams to consolidate their mid table positions or even to sneak up the rankings a teensy weensy bit.

Matches against the Irish always evoke strong emotions amongst the followers of both clubs. They did of course totally humiliate our reserve side at some final at Twickenham a few years ago but my memory chip has been reprogrammed to forget the gory details. The following season, we wrought revenge upon them at the Ali Kazzam Stadium at Oxford in the Cup semi final with a devastating second half of total rugby during which the referee, Chris White, officially had a shocker of a game. It was official, ‘cos Budge told him so, en route to the sidelines for 10 minutes R&R.

My personal favourite game from the past?  At Sunbury, in the olden days, when the rain was lashing horizontally across the pitch, having been specially imported from Limerick and there was mud even on the roof of the stand! Saints turned round after half time to face the gale and in one of the best displays of wet weather rugby I’ve ever seen,  (the other being Scotland beating England in April 2000 !) the Saints pack, driven on by Dawson, just laid into Irish and set the foundation for a classic victory.

Then came the era of Evil Dr Venter, a pathologist so deranged that he used to carry out post mortems during a match. Our young, shy and retiring scrum half, Little Mattie Dawson, nearly had his head removed by the Doctor who has gone on to be nearly as notorious in Saint’s folklore as, well as…as… Austin Healey! and that’s really bad!

Following the intervention of the Security Council of the UN, things calmed down a bit between the clubs to the extent that an arrangement was put in place to allow the visiting side to win at the expense of the home team. However, something happened earlier this season to upset the mussels cart and Saints won at home with a converted try a couple of seconds into injury time. Bruce had to kick the conversion, mind, to win and he coolly did just that from the touchline.

So it’s the Irish turn to win on Sunday. But will the resurgent Saints let them? Will the new found confidence to play 15 man rugby and to put sides away when in the lead happen two weeks running? I have absolutely no idea! With 4 internationals missing from Saints, it could be a tall order to beat Irish at home. They have been performing consistently well of late and are hardly affected by international call ups.

The teams are :

The surprise from Saints point of view is the award of the captaincy to lock Damien Browne. The former Connacht player was as surprised as everyone else but he has been calling the shots in the line out this season and is a fearsome sight, weighing in at over 20 stones. He will have able assistance all over the field, with Carlos Spencer running things in the backs and Mark Robinson snapping away at the heels of the pack.

Irish are ably led by the old stager, Mike Catt who is having something of an Indian summer in his career and playing and directing as well as ever from centre. Their lock pairing of Casey and Kennedy are a match for anybody so Damien and his mate Matt Lord, as well as Daniel Browne, will need to have the line out tuned to perfection.

The back line for Saints sees the return from England 7’s duty of Andy Vilk in Ben Cohen’s place and John Rudd starting in the 14 shirt. The now settled centre pairing of David Quinlan and Jon Clarke, who looks to be on the brink of international honours with England, give hope of tries orchestrated by the Great Maestro himself, King Carlos, man of the match last week against Saracens. The versatile Robbie Kydd starts at 15 instead of Reihana.

From the look of the team sheet, Irish are fielding a useful starting 15 and have talent to spare on the bench with the likes of Paul Gustard, Phil Murphy and Flopsy, I mean Mopsy, sorry Topsy Ojo, who, apparently, is rather quick!

The battle of the back rows will probably decide the outcome, especially if the weather turns nasty and Dan Browne v Juan Manuel Leguizamon looks interesting to say the least! The forecast is for a very cold day so wrap up warm and enjoy the rugby at the Mad Stad.

My prediction?

Some Guinness will be consumed.