By The Saracens
April 6 2022

Friday sees a return to Europe after a ridiculously long gap since our last game (a home win against Irish back in mid-January if you can remember that far back). Saracens’ final pool game is away to the splendidly named Club Athletique Brive Correze Limousin (henceforth referred to simply as “Brive”). I wish now we were going but everything seemed too uncertain a few weeks ago when we would have needed to make the arrangements. There was no guarantee the match would take place or that France would let us in so sadly it’s the TV for me (fortunately it is on TV) but a nice Limousin steak and a glass of Vin de Correze (they probably don’t stock it in my local Tesco though) will do instead.

Brive are based in the town of Brive-la-Gaillarde, the largest town in the area (although not the capital which is apparently Tulle). Their stadium, Stade Amedee-Domenech has a capacity of 16,000. Brive play in black and white. Amedee Domenech, by the way, known as Le Duc, was a prop who played for Brive in the 50’s & 60’s and won 52 caps for France. After he retired, he became a city councillor and was regional president of the Radical Party. He sadly died in 2003 at the age of 70. Brive’s best days were at the end of the last century. They were 4 times losing finalists in the French Championship but they did famously win the Heineken Cup in 1997 defeating none other than Leicester Tigers.

In the French League, Brive’s home form is pretty impressive – in recent weeks they have beaten Castres, Toulon, Clermont & Biarritz and drawn with Montpelier since their last home defeat – to Bordeaux. During that same period they have lost all 3 away games: to Racing, Clermont and La Rochelle (typical French style that). Brive are currently in a precarious 12^th place in the French top 14, so like Sarries, the European Challenge Cup may not be their main priority this season.

Brive were thumped by 10 tries to nil away to Edinburgh in the last round. Only 4 Brive players who started that game featured in their defeat to Clermont last weekend:  Laranjeira, Tournebize, Sanga  and Fa’aso’o. So it seems likely Brive will rest a number of their more integral players in order to concentrate on retaining their Top 14 status. We could come up against 2 old boys though, Hayden Thompson-Stringer and Tevita Ratuvu. Mark McCall fielded a pretty strong side in the home win over Irish back in January. Maro is in the Big Apple so is clearly having a week off and MMc may also opt to rest Jamie, Vincent and possibly the Nicks: Tompkins and Isiekwe. Billy could also be due a rest and Loz also could do with a break, although we may see a couple of these on the bench, just in case. The problem is that a week’s rest for too many will end up in another 4 weeks rest for the team and whereas the Challenge Cup is not top priority for Sarries, it’s a competition we’ve never won and should be treated with a bit more respect than the Premiership Cup. So a front row of Baz, Woolstencroft and Alec Clarey, Theo and Tim Swinson at lock and Ben Earl, Andy Christie and Jackson Wray in the back row.  Assuming Faz is over his bump on the head, I expect he will start. Unless Van Zyl has recovered, de Haas looks too raw for a starting birth and as Davis missed a number of games earlier this year, I would expect to see him alongside his captain. Taylor and maybe Dom in the centre, Lewington and perhaps Segun on the wings and Goode/Daly/Malins at full-back. As previously mentioned, there may be some insurance on the bench in case things don’t go to plan so perhaps a stronger set of “finishers” than is sometimes the case.

The officials are all Scots: Mike Adamson has the whistle assisted by Ian Kenny and Graeme Ormiston with Sam Grove-White in the truck. So good luck to us there then! Mr Adamson has not received the best press of late – his handling of the England/Wales Game this year was widely criticised, he was also unpopular with Australia after their defeat by Wales – the Tompkins “knock-on try” incident - (Dave Rennie the Wallaby coach described his officiating as “horrendous”) and he took charge of the infamous game between Quins and Castres when Alex Dombrandt scored a controversial winning try as the clock turned red. The fact he is officiating in the Challenge rather than the Heineken Cup may suggest that his star has slipped a bit.

Sarries should have enough in the bank to win this although a trip to France is never straightforward. Victory should ensure a home game on Easter Sunday as this crazy competition takes an even stranger route! Whoever came up with this idea should be forced to eat his weight in chocolate. It’s unfair to supporters and to the clubs:- less than a week to plan and market a game on Easter Sunday really isn’t fair to anyone but when did the authorities ever care about that! Anyway let’s hope it’s something we do need to bother about along with our Easter Eggs!