Northampton Saints
News: AP: Irish v Saints - Boxing Day Preview
By Western Wanderer
December 22 2015
Whilst the rest of us are tucking into too much food and drink on Christmas Day, the Northampton Saints players will be behaving themselves, preparing to travel down to Reading to take on London Irish on Boxing Day. COYSDC messageboard contributor, WesternWanderer (David to his mates), takes a look ahead to the game...
LONDON IRISH vs NORTHAMPTON SAINTS
AP: Saturday, 26th December 2015 - 2.30pm (BT)
MADEJSKI STADIUM, READING
MATCH PREVIEW
Tis the season to be Merry, so fair tidings to you all. But it’s not that joyous if you’re a fan of London Irish victories or Saints tries which have been in short supply recently.
I’ve always viewed the Irish as Saints bogey team. Continually, it seemed during the 90’s that Saints with a supposedly stronger squad would be turned over by the men in green. This reached its nadir in 2002 when Saints went to the old Pilkington Cup final as overwhelming favourites only to be trounced 38-7. Saints subsequently signed a number of that Irish team – Geoff Appleford who succumbed to injury (I’m not sure he ever made a first team appearance) and Barry Everitt, when seeking a consistent goal kicker.
That path has become well-trodden as the current Saints squad includes Irish alumni Corbisiero, Fisher, and Gibson, the latter via a mediocre club a little to the north, with Geraghty and Waldouck moving in the opposite direction. Corbisiero’s troubles are well documented, but Fisher could return after injury, whilst Gibson is an early season contender for Saints player of the season with all action dynamic performances. Saints look likely to miss another newcomer after Kieran “soap star” Brookes limped off injured at the weekend. His destructive scrummaging has earnt the Saints many penalties this season, but Paul Hill has performed well off the bench and it will be instructive to see how well he does with this opportunity.
Irish have invested heavily during the close-season. Tom Coventry arrived as coach, previously assistant coach at the highly successful New Zealand Super rugby franchise the Chiefs. He brought back lock Matt Symons with him, who had become highly regarded in Super Rugby as well as recruiting All Black Ben Franks to shore up the scrum, Sean Maitland from Glasgow and Dom Waldouck from Saints. They have endured a difficult start to the season, losing all six league matches so far and were thumped 38-7 by Harlequins in their last outing. European rugby has been somewhat kinder with victories over Agen and Edinburgh, but two further losses.
Early season league tables are often misleading, but interestingly after this match Saints will have played all of the bottom six and only one of the top six, which hints at tougher tests to come. One stat that concerns us all is the lack of tries from Saints. There are many factors influencing this, but I believe one of the most important is that we always seem to get slow ball allowing the opposition defences time to reset. The constant change at scrum half cannot help this, but there were definite signs of sparks amongst the backs against Racing, a match we could have won especially given a dubious scrum penalty against us when on their five metre line.
Recent history has been good to Saints, who have won the last five meetings between the clubs and eight of the last ten. So with that in mind and the strength of our tight five I’m hoping that Santa will bring us a victory by two scores.
A note for those of a pedantic persuasion – they have four Irish players on their books, so can no longer be label the Not Nots, suggestions for a new moniker are welcome…
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Boys and girls, I think this is WW's first article for COYSDC (thank you!) - lots of comments, please...
Not, not, nots?
A good read as always, Merry Xmas to all and here's hoping your lack of tries continues (well at least to the New Year)
Not in London,
Not a very nice ground
Not very Irish
Thanks for your piece WW.
One day, someone should write the story of "How London Irish lost their way after Brendan Venter left and never found it again..."
I shall not be going, I don't like the concrete shell that purports to be their home ground. Previously I very much disliked that twerp with the WWII Siren, but now it is easy to focus on the bloke on the PA entreating all and sundry to "CUM ON YEW OIRISH".
As it is the season of goodwill, I shall stop there other than to say, I still haven't forgiven Mark Mapletoft for suckering us sideways with "THAT TRY" in front of the old South Stand...
"Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun. If you do not, the sun will soon set, and you with it."
-- Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor 161-180 A.D.
Paul where is your Christmas spirit man. Have a swig!
Mapletofts try is one of rueful admiration compensated by Geraghty doing the same to Munster for us.
Fingers crossed we can re-discover our try-scoring mojo. COYS!!!
Except for Paul who doesn't seem a fun guy.
COYI - in an English accent
Paul is a fun guy buy you sometimes have to be in his company for it to shine through.
I also disagree about Mapletoft's try. I like that sort of quick thinking and awareness.
Concerning the Nots, I too never feel confident against them, certainly at their place. Rarely are they exciting games. Happy for a win on this occasion. And we are not able to make it, even though Hants is not far away.
Thanks for the preview. Stuck on the sofa for this one full of turkey and mince pies. Hopefully we can score a few tries, if only to stop all the odious repetition on message board and TV alike. COYS.
Saint 'til I die
I'm looking forward to seeing James Wilson coming off the bench. We've really missed his intelligent use of space and he always poses fresh problems for tiring defences.
The Wanderers scored 5 tries away against Tigers 2nds. Collins scored a try using his pace. He's done us proud in some big games (The Tigers semi-final the year we won the title and the Leinster away win) so deserves a chance.
A suggested team against Irish:
1 Waller, A
2 Haywood
3 Hill (Brookes looked unlikely to be fit)
4 Matfield
5 Lawes
6 Gibson
7 Harrison
8 Dickinson
9 Fotuali'i
10 Myler
11 North
12 Hanrahan
13 Pisi
14 Collins
15 Foden
16 Hobbs-Awoyemi
17 Williams
18 Denman
19 Daisy
20 Paterson
21 Kessell
22 Burrell
23 Wilson
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015:12:23:10:36:28 by SaintMaul.
I agree with Saint Maul that this is a time for some changes although not too many. Personally I would play JJ at 10 rather than Myler. Is Stephenson injured? Our mis-firing backs need to start firing soon, and perhaps changes to the line up will encourage that to happen.
I too will be taking this one in from the comfort of my sofa. Not a fan of the Madjeski but I'll probably be hollering as though I am there.
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Merry Xmas and see you Boxing Day at the AP's most comfortable stadium....
“Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”
Benjamin Franklin
Tetleys Block F E143
Four going from the Connor household, including son-in-law over from Barcelona, who doesn't get to many games, so a good win please, Saints.
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