Guinness Premiership Betting Preview Week 5
By Wellsaint
October 14 2005
Comeonyousaints.com's resident tipster Wellsaint runs the rule over this weekend's Guinness Premiership matches.
Northampton v London Irish - Northampton's season seems to have come to life in the Powergen Cup, whereas Irish have lost both their games in the competition. So Northampton enter this fixture in a rich(ish) vein of form, in a game that they really need to win - surely this would have been targeted as a home banker?
On current form, yes - but Irish tend to have the "sign" over the Saints, and we've lost many games against them that on form we should have won convincingly. Saints certainly looked to have stepped up a couple of gears last week, but it has to be said that the opposition were extremely weak. My view on the competition is well known - there's little in it for the English clubs (except the money - more per round than the Heineken Cup?!) - and the competition has yet to catch the imagination of the fans, if the attendances are anything to go by (ours was just over 10,000 - and held up considerably better than most - possibly due to it being included in the season ticket package.)
To this weekend's game: assuming that Saints continue to improve (last week was by no means anything like a perfect performance) I predict a Saints victory by twelve points, and, crucially, that we score four tries. That will be an extremely welcome tonic to the guys and gals who are walking from Wolverton and Stoke Bruerne to Franklin's Gardens before the match in the annual "Saints With Hearts" Walk. This is the fourth year that this event has been held, and last year we managed to raise in excess of £20,000 for the British Heart Foundation. You can find more information on the walk on the SWH4 messageboard on comeonyousaints.com. If you are coming to the game, there will be collectors with buckets all around the ground - please bring plenty of change with you!
Leicester v Newcastle - Newcastle lost in a tight game at Llanelli last week, after which Rob Andrew moaned about the referee (no change there, then.) Leicester meantime beat Worcester in the other game in the Powergen group that Saints find themselves in, which sets up a "winner takes all" game at Welford Road on 3rd December. However, let's look at Friday night's game, which is live on Sky. Last season, this was something of a one-way fixure (83-10 sticks in the mind, but perhaps I'm wrong) and, whilst I don't see it being anything like that this time around, I think a Leicester victory is on the cards by fifteen points.
Sale v Wasps - A top of the table clash which is likely to be very close, and therefore extremely difficult to call. I take Sale to edge it by two, if only because of the home advantage.
Worcester v Leeds -
Bath v Gloucester - A
Bristol v Saracens - Bristol's excellent start to the season seems to have petered out somewhat, whilst Saracens have had something of a mixed bag of results. I take Saracens to win this game by nine.
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