By Loosehead on 13/05/2003
May 14 2003

After finishing 12th and bottom of the pile last season in the Zurich Premiership, Leeds finished 7 places higher in the lofty position of 5th place in the league - normally enough to guarantee Heineken Cup rugby for the next season - a fantastic achievement by any measure you care to name.

However, due to the new rules in force this season, the teams between fifth and eighth places find themselves having to play at least 2 more games in the space of 5 days for a chance of playing in that "Holy Grail" of Rugby competitions the Heineken European Cup.

So on Wednesday night the Tykes will have to drag the battle weary and broken bodies to Vicarage Road to play Saracens in the "Wild Card Play-Off" Semi-Final 1st leg.

With the scores between Tykes and Sarries at 1-1 this season and 2-0 to the Tykes last season, it would seem that the Tykes ought to go into this match as favourites. But Sarries come in to this game on the back of a 34-19 win over Sale while the Tykes arrive after a debilitating 28-6 loss away to the Saints. The game is going to be very hard on both sets of players as they have endured a long season and both teams know that they cannot rest yet as the lure of European Cup Rugby to either club is too good of an opportunity to spurn.

Rugby is a very physical and demanding game, and both teams will know it is not possible to play their strongest XV in 3 games over the space of 8 days. Therefore these next two games will become more of a squad effort as both teams will need to play several of their squad players on Wednesday, Sunday or maybe even both. This means that some of the Tykes players who have not had much game time in the last few weeks may find themselves in the starting XV in the Tykes biggest games yet, the likes of Ponton, Campbell, Wring, Emmerson and Phil Murphy may find they have a very important role in the direction of the club for next season.

Spare a thought perhaps also for Sarries leaver Stuart Hooper. He is highly likely to be playing in either or both of these two games, and will find himself playing to stop his new club Leeds from playing at the top table next term. What a horrible thing to have to do!

PD will need to be shrewed in his selection policy - will he play his strongest XV on Wednesday night hoping to deliver the KO blow, or will he he save his strongest XV for Sunday? I believe it will be the latter. and PD will rest Ronnie, Cammy, Diego, Shells Dan Hyde and Chris Murphy.

The team for Wednesday will be as follows:-

15. Diego Albanese
14. George Harder
13. Tristan Davies
12. Braam van Straaten
11. Winston Stanley
10. Gordon Ross
9. Alan Dickens
1. Matt Holt
2. Rob Rawlinson
3. Gavin Kerr
4. Chris Murphy
5. Tom Palmer
6. Alix Popham
7. James Ponton
8. Isaac Feaunati

REPLACEMENTS
16. Mike Shelley
17. Justin Wring
18. Stewart Campbell
19. Carl Hogg
20. Derek Hegarty
21. Dan Scarbrough
22. Chris Hall

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