Northampton v Llanelli - Heineken Cup Preview

By Mark H
January 30 2004

It’s that time of year when all the usual questions are asked. Have U2, after all these years, found what they’ve been looking for? Whose round is it? Who recommended Little Thatched Austin to his hair restorers? And to parapharse a Gardens song, Who the hell are Leicester Tigers?

But more importantly, just what do Saints need to do to get into the Heineken Cup quarter-finals?

Well, no, yours, you don’t think someone will admit to it do you, the third best team in the Midlands, to the first four questions.

To the fifth, and it makes a change to say this, just one word - WIN.

The unlikely, unexpected, sublime and awesome victory in Agen last Friday night has put Saints into a far stronger position that we could ever have thought possible during the comparative failure at home to Borders. No one would have wanted to have to get a try bonus point off the Scarlets to qualify - not that it wouldn’t have been possible, but it would have put undue pressure onto a task which is already difficult as it currently stands. Make no mistake, Llanelli are the favourites going into this game, as they have two results that could get them through, and to what may well be a home quarter final. Just to reach the last eight, Saints have to win - no more, no less.

If you have to win your last game though, you would want it to be at home, in front of your own support that have followed you to Scotland and the south of France on successive Friday nights, to great expense. Supporters which have shouted themselves hoarse to inspire the players to make one more break, one more tackle, one more kick, one more push. Supporters which had belief in the players, in the coaching staff, in themselves. Supporters who believed that it was worth every penny. Supporters that still believe.

There were players on Friday night who discovered things about themselves, and about each other, reaching new heights of endeavour and success. Well, here’s a message to them. As much as we all appreciate what you did, if you don’t perform a hundred per cent better on Sunday, if you don’t walk away with one more point than the Scarlets, then those efforts will be totally wasted. They’ll mean nothing. It may as well have not happened.

In life, don’t waste the opportunities that are set before you. Don’t waste. WIN.

Llanelli will bring a large following with them, although estimates (boasts?) of four thousand travelling are way off the mark, simply because Saints don’t have that many tickets available on match days after season ticket holders and other considerations. Expect, however, approximately three thousand Welsh voices united in song, all backing their side to make the last eight again. Early talk in midweek was of an injury crisis at Stradey, but from the team announced on Thursday, it seems pretty strong to my untrained eyes:-

15 Barry Davies
14 Garan Evans
13 Mark Taylor
12 Matthew Watkins
11 Salesi Finau
10 Stephen Jones
9 Dwayne Peel
1 Iestyn Thomas
2 Robin McBryde
3 John Davies
4 Vernon Cooper (captain)
5 Adam Jones
6 Dafydd Jones
7 Simon Easterby
8 Scott Quinnell.

16 Phil John
17 Aled Gravelle
18 Chris Wyatt
19 David Hodges
20 Mike Phillips
21 Gareth Bowen
22 Tal Selley.

Leigh Davis and Mark Jones will be big losses for them, but the team still seems pretty solid, although they have been pretty reliant on Scott Quinnell to score tries for them - or at least they were until last Friday’s eight try hammering of the Borders.

It is, however, not a question of how you win in life, but that you win. They may have scraped past Saints and Agen at Stradey, but they were two wins - add them to the two hammerings of Borders and you find them in pole position in the group. That first game at Stradey set the tone for the group, in having two very good teams slugging it out, but ultimately it would come down to the team that got the better results away from home to go through. Two away wins (and five in all) would guarantee a spot, as long as you didn’t lose a home game. Saints have been victorious on the road twice, Llanelli once, but if they get a second on Sunday, then…

Unsurprisingly, Wayne Smith named the same starting XV that did the club proud in the Lot-et-Garonne Underwater Face Off Championship last Friday, but there’s been a slight adjustment to the bench. The team:-

15 Bruce Reihana
14 Mark Tucker
13 Chris Hyndman
12 John Leslie (captain)
11 Ben Cohen
10 Paul Grayson
9 Mark Robinson
1 Tom Smith
2 Steve Thompson
3 Robbie Morris
4 Matt Lord
5 Mark Connors
6 Andrew Blowers
7 Darren Fox
8 Grant Seely

16 Dan Richmond
17 Chris Budgen
18 Jon Phillips
19 Mark Soden
20 Matt Dawson
21 Shane Drahm
22 Oriol Ripol

If Daws comes through a fitness test on Saturday, then he’ll take Johnny Howard’s place on the bench. Other than that, it’s the same. Same strength. Same skill. Same passion. Same belief. Same result?

Back at Stradey on 5th December, the Scarlets beat Saints 14-9, mainly thanks to a try from Scott Quinnell that appeared to be picked up from an offside position, and the inaccuracy with the boot of Stephen Jones, having a uncharacteristically bad evening with the boot. Let’s be honest, it probably should have been a wider margin of victory, with Saints slightly off the pace in the face of an onslaught from the Welshmen. Another reason why the Scarlets will go into the game as favourites; they’ve beaten us once, and know how to.

But whatever anyone says, this is not England versus Wales. If people want to bring up hundreds of years of supposed victimisation in the hope of getting a mental edge, let them. If people want revenge for previous international clashes, let them. This game is about two proud club sides, two of the elite of Europe, two sides with long histories. That’s where any historical focus should be, not looking at what are, frankly, irrelevant arguments.

No hype necessary.

So to a prediction. The supporters will sing, banter, and enjoy a cracking game of rugby. Sky will wet themselves at their luck at getting such a game. Stuart Barnes will be praying that the Scarlets (his tip to win the competition) get through. Legends could be born out of the eighty minutes on Sunday. Let’s hope that they come in all black, green and gold. Saints by eight.

And finally, to remind everyone of what’s at stake, I’ve borrowed a familiar Stereophonics song that should be familiar to those who went to Stradey in December. With apologies to Kelly Jones:-

As long as we beat Llanelli,
As long as we beat Llanelli,
As long as we beat Llanelli,
WE DON’T CARE!



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