Gloucester .v. Northampton Saints Preview


"Always Whinging"
By Cherrybomb
April 11 2002

On Saturday Gloucester play the second away game in a week and this time the hosts are Northampton. The Saints didn't have a midweek game and field a strong side which will make the task hard for Gloucester, eager to pull away from London Irish.

Back in September, first game of the season, Gloucester wiped the saints from the turf with a comprehensive 22-9 victory at Kingsholm. Gloucester would like to repeat that feat again, though the cards don't look good. For many years Northampton have been the underachieviers of the premiership, with such stars as Ben Cohen, Whinging Dawson, and Budge Pountney all owners of many international caps, they should do better. Their stadium is one of the best rugby stadiums in England after two new stands at the beginning of the season. The match will be ideal practice for Gloucester who face Sale at Franklin's Gardens in the Parker Pen Shield semi final.

Gloucester have won 61% of games against Northampton since 1989, and will be looking to increase that with the possibility of a totally different side playing on saturday to that of Wednesday night's terrible defeat to Wasps. James Simpson-Daniel will hope to be playing after his heroic exploits in the hong kong sevens, and Henry Paul will probably join him in the centres. If Chris Catling recovers from his injury then you can expect O'leary and Beim on the wings, as Albanese was injured on Wednesday. The front row looks to be an all international tree, with the likely pick being Woodman, Azam an Vickery, back from an ankle injury. Expect Forrester and Boer in the back row, possibly with promising Fijian Koli Sewabu also starting at flanker. It is a possibly that Henry paul will play at fly half, because Ludovic mercier took so many knocks on Wednesday as the Wasps team were intent on beating the living daylights out of him. This is the first match that Nigel Melville takes full control of, after only being alound the reigns after the Wasps match. A win on Saturday for Gloucester would hopefully give them a great chance of second spot and a Heineken Cup place as the remaining games are relatively easy, however Northampton have a lot to play for also wanting a European Cup spot.

Northampton Team:

Predicted score: Gloucester 22 - 15 Northampton

I know it doesn't sound like we had a chance in the preview, but I think we will scrape it.