Northampton Saints v Biarritz - HC Preview

Onwards n upwards...
By Chris G
October 17 2002

Its a Pool Six Heineken Cup table topper for the Saints on Saturday as they take on Biarritz Olympique Pays Basque. BOPB legend Serge Blanco is crowing that this is the year of the French in the Heineken Cup. Smudgers boys will be going all out to prove him wrong.......

The Saints travel to the South West of France on Saturday to the Basque country to play French champions Biarritz Olympique in the Heineken European Cup. The team travel on a high aiming to maintain the clubs current good run after the home wins over Wasps and Ulster.

Biarritz are the form side in France at the moment, they head their group in the French league and are a much improved side from the club that scraped into the European Cup two years ago when they and the Saints shared the spoils with a game apiece.

Visit the Biarritz website

TEAM NEWS

Peter Jorgensen still misses out through injury so the backs remain the same as the side that beat Ulster last Sunday with Mark Tucker deputising for Jorgy.

In the forwards Steve Thompson is banned for picking up three yellow cards so Chris Budgen is again thrown into the hookers slot. Welsh U21 hooker Matt Miles comes onto the bench as cover.

Saints:
15 NICK BEAL
14 ORIOL RIPOL
13 Mark Tucker
12 JOHN LESLIE (capt)
11 BEN COHEN
10 PAUL GRAYSON
9 MATT DAWSON
1 TOM SMITH
2 Chris Budgen
3 Robbie Morris
4 STEVE WILLIAMS
5 MARK CONNORS
6 ANDREW BLOWERS
7 BUDGE POUNTNEY
8 Mark Soden

Replacements:
16 Matt Miles
17 MATT STEWART
18 Jon Phillips
19 Grant Seely
20 Johnny Howard
21 JON SLEIGHTHOLME
22 James Brooks

Biarritz name a side that is steeped in class. A high quality back row of Betsen, Lievremont and Milheres is up there with the best in Europe while in the backs Bernat-Salles and Brusque could cause problems for the Saints defence.

Biarritz
MENIEU Emmanuel
GONZALEZ Jean-Michel (Cap)
AVRIL Denis
COUZINET David
ROUMAT Olivier
BETSEN Serge
LIEVREMONT Thomas
MILHERES Christophe
YACHVILI Dimitri
PEYRELONGUE Julien
ISAAC John
STCHERBINA Marc
BIDABE Philippe
BERNAT-SALLES Philippe
BRUSQUE Nicolas


If you're not going to the game.....

The game is being show delayed but in full on British Eurosport.
Rich will be holding the fort in the chat room for those of you who want their information live.


........AND THE SEASON BEFORE LAST

The teams met in the European cup group games.

See links below for the reports:

Saints v Biarritz
Biarritz v Saints

OTHER INFO

Shaddos Guide to Biarritz