News: GP: Northampton Saints vs Worcester Warriors - Preview
the bunny is back...
By Rob Richmond
September 2 2009
This Sunday sees the return of the premiership season at Franklin’s Gardens and once more the Saintly ones are welcoming our dear old friends the Warriors to Northamptonshire for an early afternoon game. But there may be more in common for the West and East Midlands sides than most supporters realise. Robby Richmond investigates...
GUINNESSS PREMIERSHIP – ROUND ONE
NORTHAMPTON SAINTS vs WORCESTER WARRIORS
Sunday, 6th September 2009 – 1.45pm
MATCH PREVIEW
Kindred spirits or Karma suffers?
The Saints and Warriors seem to share a common bond as far as supporters go, fond of a pint and a sing song; both sets of support enjoy home games far more than dreaded away trips which by and large have produced minimal results despite maximum efforts. Yet comparisons of the sides do go further still as many Saints supporters can see great similarity in the warriors side of today and that of the Saints relegation side of 07.
Many Saints supports will recall my frequent use of the phrase “the jam in the
sandwich” whenever the club were linked with yet another superstar name by the
guy in the Tugby Rhymes who seems to have a plunger stuck to the side of his
lughole.
Saints were linked with everyone and their granny that year. For example,
every single member of the Worcester back row was seen snaffling down saveloy
and chips at the Weedon Road chippy that spring. Many Toulousian front rowers were
believed to be shopping for a king size reinforced bed at the local (now
defunct) branch of MFI and several players had enrolled in evening classes to
become cocktail bartenders in the hope of opening a Samoan themed pub for the
oodles and oodles of South Seas Islanders who were cast -iron certainties to
join the Saints.
Y’see everyone came to FG and were often offered something, often a great deal more than their market rate, then would swan back to their club and tell their DOR…
“Well, Saints are offering me…”
And the Saints would end up with…
Erm,
Hang on…
Ooh I remember Christian Short! A fine and able player who placed a band aid over our ever failing lineout.
Juxtapose this situation with the Warriors, who similarly have been going through
a period of a jammy condiment nature. Frequently linked yet rarely signing big
time Charlie’s or even small time Charlie’s and these days it seems like any
kind of Charlie.
The reasons for the non-signatures of players can be wide
and varied. They don’t want the kids to have to move schools, they may even
dislike the area or fear too high a council tax bracket (you may laugh it has
been given as a reason in the past) or in rugby terms they may desire European
rugby or wish to avoid a battle against relegation or perhaps they wish to work
with certain players or coaches or perhaps even avoid them….
Here in lies an issue which similarly relates to both clubs once more.
At the time Saints featured an untried and untested Head Coach who many players
outside of the club knew little of other than his playing days. While in
comparison Mike Ruddock had to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous
fortune as a collection of mardy and self aggrandising players accused him of
being mardy and self aggrandising.
Ruddock arrived at Sixways looking to rebuild his standing in the game after Alfie Thomas had made every effort to drop trout and pitch out a Cleveland steamer on his reputation. And, well, to be honest were still all kinda waiting...
While this may be the case it does give me a chance to exemplify one more common trait between supporters of the Saints and the Warriors, loyalty and patience. Now some will look upon those words and scoff, chortle or even roll about on the floor in guffawing with laughter…
But think about it, by and large the supporters have had to put up with some dross performances and yet both sides consistently saw the supporters arrive in their droves for home matches and often times away games too.
Ok, so there can be a thin line between loyalty and stupidity but one man’s King is another pauper…
Back at Sixways the squad still needs freshening up and its come in the way of a thriving academy who seem to have produced several good prospects, Cox and Wood are two back rowers who look to have possible international potential, while Matt Mullan will find himself beating off mega offers from all of the elite clubs in Europe should he find the chance in the next few years.
Yet still the ever reliable Pat Sanderson leads the way, a little older, a little wiser, but mainly a little older. This week he told Worcester News;
“We don’t know what is around the corner but, all things being equal, we expect to get ourselves up the league this season.”
Sounds exactly right to me…
Meanwhile the home side look to go from strength to strength and build on a record which has seen them defeated only once at home in a dogs age.
With the introduction of Shane Geraghty and collection of new front rowers the side struggled to find its feet in early pre-season games before walloping a heavily under-par Cardiff Blues side last Friday evening. With the re-introduction of the Maul making many people wonder just how the Saints and many other side will perform this season, I wonder aloud to myself that we might become thought of as “Leicester-lite” as in not quite so bad for you, not quite so fattening but not quite as good either.
The hard side of the Saints is so commonly on show at FG these days as it’s become a cauldron of hostility to opposition sides. Still just like the Saints, don’t be surprised to hear our old friends out singing us from time to time on Sunday afternoon…
Saints by 13
POSSIBLE TEAMS…
SAINTS
Foden;
Diggin,
Clarke
Downey
Mayor
Myler
Dickson
Tonga’uiha
Hartley (capt)
Bonorino
Kruger
Lawes
Best
Gray
Wilson
Reps: Sharman,
Dreyer, Mugati, Lobbe, Dowson, Dickens, Ansbro, Geraghty,
WORCESTER
15. Latham
14. Garvey
13. Gear
12. Grove
11. Benjamin
10. Walker
09. Powell
01. Black
02. Lutui
03. Toumempou
04. Rawlinson
05. Gillies
06. Wood
07. Collins
08. Sanderson
Reps: King, Crook, Arr, Mullan, Sourjens, Fortey, Bowley, Cox
Note. This match is also live on Sky Sports.
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009:09:07:10:19:59 by Phil..
Very good piece, a good read.
No wonder I'm reluctant to put my head above the parapit to write something on here, as the standard of most of the articles are incredibly high.
I find Worcester like I do the Super 14 - I know I should like them, but I just find whenever I see them I find them terminally boring at best, and at worst stuffed full of ridiculously overrated southern hemisphere names whose teams you just want to see experience relegation...
The breaking of the cycle of continually losing this fixture set the note for last year (much as the New Year's Day loss set the tone for the horrors of relegation), and I'm looking for a good springboard to a good year from this. Try bonus would be the high aim.
Unfortunately, the top 2 in the Russian league play-off at the same time on Sunday at VVA's ground, I can't decide which game to miss!
Kenneth, the strength of the site is the variety of previewers, reviewers and not that it's one man's opinions every week. If we wanted something that repeated every week with just a few names changed we'd actually watch the Rugby Club...
Rob sets a very high benchmark sure, but not one contributor who has written has produced anything less, just a different angle. This is the supporters' voice, is it not? You're a supporter, so have a crack at one!
(Especially if it in some way belittles Stuart Barnes!)
St Kenneth - I can only echo what everyone else has said and would add that if I can do it then you can do it. Go on - have a go.......
this week anyway...
dej
Eif, maybe defending teams should use the same tactic against mauls as Nottingham employed against us at Meadow Lane...don't engauge
Gordon Terrace C Block