Another cup final for Saints - Falcons preview

preview
By LX in Space
April 14 2005

Just when you think the Saints rollercoaster is going to slow down and roll up to the exit, a twist and a jink and you realise the ride is not over by a long shot.

Something seemed to have been going right, we beat Leicester at home, Gloucester away (something we don’t often do in a ‘good’ season). Admittedly the track was starting to seem a little rickety when we entertained Quins – but somehow we pulled out a win. Our small foreign excursion that seems to have left us battered and bruised and brings us to the depressing result from the Rec.

Which means in many ways trying to preview Friday nights fixture against the Falcons is no mean feat. In fact it’s not particularly helped by the Falcons having had a similarly chaotic, but more successful season. In the past few games, they have been mauled by Tigers and Stade Francais, lost to Worcester and Bath, drawn Gloucester and beaten Wasps!

Back to the Rec though, an injury hit Saints were pushed around the park, our ability to compete in the line was exterminated for a large periods of time and it was pretty hard not to feel miserable and dejected after all that. So anything good we can take from it? Well a few things. As for the Toulouse game we came out and dominated possession for the first 20 minutes or so, however we were (again) unable to do anything with it – for me this is the story of our season, we can win the ball but actually getting it into the oppositions 22, and over the try line seems to be beyond us. Then, when Bath faded during the second half, there was some element of us stepping up to the challenge (we even started winning some line outs) – but again we failed to do anything with it.

The key question is, can Newcastle make us look that bad again – well I saw some of there HC QF game, and I think they suffered many of the problems that we did in France so I think we will be looking at a much more even contest. This I think will benefit us, we can score tries but we seem to need a lot more visits to the oppositions 22. Johnny Howard showed a little of his previous form, but sadly reverted to providing the poor service that we have seen in the last few games which did us no favours at all.

Another area of vital importance will be defence, it’s something that we’ve actually been pretty good at at times this season (but with Frank Ponissi as defence coach we should be!), and in fact we saw some heroic defence last Saturday (though some was spoilt by the presence of that other habit of our this season, silly penalties in the wrong place). If we can avoid giving away soft tries, then again I think we have an opportunity to make the most of our attacking opportunities (if anything sealed our defeat at the Rec it was the last 10 minutes in the first half where we seemed to fall asleep).

15 BRUCE REIHANA
14 John Rudd
13 Marc Stcherbina
12 Chris Hyndman
11 BEN COHEN
10 Shane Drahm
9 Ben Jones
1 Simon Emms
2 STEVE THOMPSON (capt)
3 Brett Sturgess
4 SELBORNE BOOME
5 Matt Lord
6 Darren Fox
7 CORNE KRIGE
8 Mark Soden

Bench TBA

Some significant changes here, probably the biggest is Ben Jones stepping into the No.9 shoes to replace Johnny Howard. Certainly Bens appearance in a few games recently has improved things, hopefully this will help unlock our backs. Who are mainly unchanged, a small shuffle sees Andy Vilk rested and Chris Hyndman start.

The forwards look a little stronger than last weekend with the return of Corne Krige, though sadly Andrew Blowers will not make his last home appearance at the gardens. Had both returned I would have had a lot more confidence in the pack, even so I think we will look a lot better than last week.

15 Matthew Burke
14 Tom May
13 Jamie Noon
12 Mark Mayerhofler
11 Michael Stephenson
10 Mark Wilkinson
9 James Grindal
1 Galo Alvarez Quinones
2 Matt Thompson
3 David Wilson
4 Luke Gross
5 Stuart Grimes
6 Colin Charvis (captain)
7 Cory Harris
8 Phil Dowson

Bench TBA

Of course the headline omission here is a certain Mr. Wilkinson – he may appear as a result of a late fitness test, originally I was unsure of how much difference he might make to the Falcons. However I think his omission from the Lions, with the opportunity to be included if he can demonstrate fitness certainly means he will want to make his mark if played, not something I think will be good for us. Especially as we have not lost our bad habit of giving away penalties in the wrong half. Something that has told against in a number of games (such as the Saracens game) especially in a close match.

The forwards see a number of changes in the front row, and there are number of replacements in the backs including changes to scrum and fly halves. Certainly Mark Wilkinson seems a competent fly half who can punish a side with his place kicks adequately enough.

So what will the result be – well one thing that concerns me is that we have a fairly poor record in games we should win (in terms of paper advantage). In fact in those dim and distant days when we knew what the altitudes of the top table were like one of the things that pleased me was how we demolished Quins as the old style Saints would have probably struggled against such a team (just think back to Orrell, Rotherham from previous seasons). I’m not sure if we do have that advantage though, which I perhaps would have assumed a few weeks back.

We do however have a team who I’m sure will go out and give it their all, there are probably some points to be made – and as WestMidsSaint has pointed out “Remember Glasgow at home? - we needed 5 points - we did the biz. Why not now?” so I’m feeling a little confident (but then again I was for Bath!) I think we’ll do this one, but I do think it will be close so I’ll call it by 7 (at the most) to us.

The only certainty is that like the rollercoaster, it will not be good for those of a nervous disposition. It most defiantly will not be good for nails, or the heart, and if (when) we win I suspect the rest of the weekend may be something of a blur!