The Bard's Valentine greeting for the ShedHeads

Inbred or what?
By Steve Bardell
February 14 2007

Once more unto the breach... The Guinness Premiership finally returns after a two week break, and thanks to the parochial outlook of the national selectors the Sarries squad should be well rested.

Whilst this is not quite the final push, it is a massive game for both sides and it will go a long way to defining the outcome of the season for them. Looking at the fixtures, it is probably our toughest remaining home game (apologies to Bristol), and Gloucester’s hardest away (we hope!)

At this stage it is unclear whether the England players will be involved, as the late kick-off in Dublin the following week means we may miss the 6-day rule by a few minutes, provided there is not too much stoppage time.
Before the start of the season I predicted that Gloucester would win the league- and if you don’t believe me, check the thread ‘prediction league’. My very favourite reporter Paul Ackford thought so too, amazingly not choosing Sarries for once!

They certainly haven’t let me down, and nearly two-thirds of the way through the campaign, the Cherry and Whites are sitting in third place, 5 points behind Leicester with a game in hand. Without the distractions of the Heineken Cup to worry about, top place is still possible, and a place in the play-offs looks pretty certain.

Glaws started the season in great style, with 3 wins and a draw at Welford Road in their first 4 away games. Since then they have lost the last three, but must be wondering how they let a good lead slip at Sale. After some poor home form over the previous couple of seasons the ramparts at Castle Grim have been fully restored, and they have beaten all-comers at home in the league this season, including Sarries 21-12 after we had given them an 11 point start and never quite got back within arms length.

Overall Gloucester have shaded things at Vicarage Road in recent years, although last seasons 9-19 win came at a time when our confidence was lower than the proverbial snake’s belly. 2004/5 actually saw three Sarries wins over Glos, all fairly low scoring affairs with the Steve Diamond hall-mark. Look back further into the mists of time and you can see two missed penalties by Nicky Little from in front of the posts that cost us at least a bonus point, and don’t forget Marcel Garvey going down as if he’d been shot when Tim Horan sneezed 5 yards away.

There must be a factory farm down in the West Country knocking out talented young backs-this season Anthony Allen and Olly Morgan have made their England debuts, but somewhat ironically their places are now being taken by more experienced and injury prone club-mates in Iain Balshaw and Mike Tindall. And if they can’t grow them, like us they buy them from Rugby League in the form of Karl Pryce from Bradford Bulls. In the words of Uncle Eddie Waring (or was it Mike Yarwood?) “Aye, ‘e’s a big strong lad, is that”. He hasn’t played in the GP yet, but I suspect we will know all about it when he does.

The aforementioned Mr Allen is the leading try-scorer for the Cherry and Whites with 4, unfortunately the list on the Guinness site does not extend as far as the highest Sarrie. I’m sure that new signing P.Nulty has got a few this year, though....

Gloucester don’t do so well in the other categories, and can only boast the 19th heaviest player in Will James, decidedly size zero in comparison to our own well-fed Census Johnson. Their tallest player (Alex Brown) only comes in 12th, although I’m sure that if there was a category for ‘player with the most fingers’, the West country boys would be well in front. Only joking! In fact, these days the tractors are just as likely to be driven by an Italian or Frenchman. In the summer Glos pulled of a major coup signing Bortolami and Nieto from Italy, and also tempted Christian Califano back across the channel. Good to see that his home-sickness is clearing up nicely!

He may well be packing down alongside Olivier Azam, who hasn’t hit the heights of his first spell at Kingsholm but if the Glos pack get up a head of steam, don’t be surprised to see him appearing on the scoresheet.

Can we do it? Given that we’ve beaten Leicester, Wasps and even London Irish at home this season, yes we certainly can. It may well depend on the state of Cobus’ elbow, and at the time of writing the odds look slightly against him making it.
Don’t be too surprised to see Tom Mercey starting, as he is possibly a better scrummager than Census. We might see Paul Gustard in the back row to quell the combative Peter Buxton, who played a major role in the game last season, and has been in fine form this term too.

Another Thomas Castaignede comeback is possible, but whether he would come back in and replace Scabs at full-back is questionable, although Dan could move to the wing as he did at Quins recently.

So come and blow your horns and bang the drums, and cheer the Men In Black to another glorious victory on Sunday.