GP: Northampton Saints vs Worcester - Preview

Northampton, twinned with East London

My father, a proud Essex boy, has often compared the Saints to his beloved West Ham United. They can play brilliantly one week and poorly the next (with emphasis towards the latter in recent weeks). On a cold December evening, in the middle of some fog, the Saints battled it out against the Wycombe Wasps and won a potentially season-turning game. However, five days later, on another cold December evening, the Saints buckled against the might of the Saracens forwards and were promptly crushed despite a decent first half performance.

Of course, this means that Saracens have joined Quins, London Irish and, um, Saracens again on the beginning-to-get-worryingly-long list of clubs that have hammered the Saints this season. So who will turn up this week? It will need to be the “vs. Wasps” team as we face fellow relegation candidates Worcester Warriors. We don’t have a good record against them at home (to be more specific, we’ve never won against them at home) and I’m sure Northampton will want to change that streak of form. However, the last time we played them was in November where, despite Wally trying to have an argument with the crowd, the Saints’ forwards powered on to a victory of 23-18, eventually turning out to be our only victory in November.

Worcester are a bit of a mystery in the whole scheme of things. A few years ago, when they entered into the Zurich Premiership, they were an unknown quantity. They did surprisingly well in their first season and had an outside chance of getting into the Heineken Cup. The next season, they stuttered a bit, but managed to still do quite well. It seemed as though the men of Worcester were condemned to a life of mid-table mediocrity. this season, they’ve decided to be much more interesting and their situation has gone from bad to worse to being a minor disaster, with a loss against this season’s ‘newcomers’, Harlequins, won’t have helped matters that much either . Their head coach has already been jettisoned from the club and they sit at the bottom of the Premiership with nine points, precisely nine points behind the not-so-jolly green giants.

Worcester does, however, have some great players. They have one of the best English flankers of recent years in the form of Pat Sanderson, who is certainly one of the best attacking forwards in England and also one of the most inspirational captains in the league. Also in the service of the Warriors is ol’ Shane Drahm. Many will remember that day in late April 2005 when Shane faced the side he was already signed to be playing for the next season. The ultimate irony was that he had the power to condemn his new team to relegation during that game. Luckily for both teams, Sale slid past Harlequins and both teams were safe, and the Warriors will be desperate to make sure they aren’t in any sort of situation like that again by the end of the season.

Well, I believe that now would be a good time to look at the teams. Starting with the visitors…

15 Shane Drahm

14 Aisea Havili

13 Dale Rasmussen

12 Gary Trueman

11 Marcel Garvey

10 James Brown

9 Ryan Powell
1 Tevita Taumoepeau

2 Aleki Lutui

3 Chris Horsman

4 Craig Gillies

5 Tim Collier

6 Gavin Quinnell

7 Pat Sanderson (c)

8 Drew Hickey

16 Darren Morris

17 Chris Fortey

18 Phil Murphy

19 Kai Horstmann

20 Matt Powell

21 Thomas Lombard

22 Thinus Delport

It’s all change as Worcester go into the New Year. Shane Drahm moves from the bench to the less familiar position of fullback. Those who were at our EDF tie with the Warriors will remember Gavin Quinnell, who wreaked havoc on our forwards; he is introduced into the team at no. 6, pushing Captain Sanderson to no. 7. Drew Hickey returns at number eight and Gary Trueman is given a run at inside centre in the place of Thomas Lombard

And now onto the Saints…

15 Paul Diggin
14 SEAN LAMONT
13 Seamus Mallon
12 Robbie Kydd
11 BEN COHEN
10 CARLOS SPENCER
9 MARK ROBINSON
1 TOM SMITH
2 STEVE THOMPSON (capt)
3 Pat Barnard
4 DAVID GERARD
5 Christian Short
6 PAUL TUPAI
7 Darren Fox
8 Daniel Browne

16 Dylan Hartley
17 Chris Budgen
18 Matt Lord
19 Mark Easter
20 Ian Vass
21 Matthieu Bourret
22 VAUGHAN GOING

This week sees the return of Mr. Ben Cohen to the fray. Bennie has been and still is an important player for the Saints. He may not necessarily be as fast as he was a few years ago, but his tireless determination and thirst to grab the ball is important in times like these. Also, this week sees the return of little Paul Diggin at full-back, where he has played extremely well for the last few games, and after being rested, Sharkey Robinson, who managed to get one of the Telegraph’s “Top Five Rugby Quotes Of The Year” after his now infamous tirade on Alex Higgins, replaces Ian Vass at scrum-half, whilst Darren Fox returns in place of Sammie Harding.

To quote Blackadder, “this is a crisis – a large crisis…and a large crisis requires a large plan”. If we win, we will not necessarily be safe from relegation, but we’ll be much safer. Of course, if we lose, we’ll be potentially only four points in front of Worcester, and considering we play Bristol (surprise league leaders, considering their lowly position last season) the following week, that will not be a good place to be. I usually make a prediction at this point of the preview, but to be honest, I would just be grateful for a win this time.

My New Year’s resolution this year is to not lose faith in the Saints, and I seriously think that with enough effort, and enough wins, we can make it into the Heineken Cup (if we don’t win it, of course). There’s been a lot of moaning and apocalyptic talk on the boards recently; that’s not what the players need. What the players need is for everyone to get behind them, to scream and shout “Oh When The Saints”. I know it’s a cliché, but the crowd really can be the sixteenth man. The support against the Wycombe Wasps was incredible. If we can replicate that, we can surely push the Jimmies to victory.

Come On You Saints…