By Mark H
September 30 2004

You're the head coach of a team out-thought and out-fought on consecutive Saturdays. Do you want to face Worcester in your next game, or the reigning English and European champions? Much as the thought of a morale boosting win would possibly placate the masses (and paper over any cracks), Wasps come to FG on Saturday afternoon with an identical two win, two loss record. Never was a third win wanted by so many.

Wasps have done it the other way round to Saints though. Defeats to Saracens (13-11) and Sale (33-30) on the first two weekends may well have provided the wake up call needed, and they followed those up with a 13-9 win at Leeds on a Sunday night (scheduling gone mad!) and a 35-26 triumph over London Irish. No try bonus points yet, but if you look at the fact that seven points the other way on the first two weekends and they'd be four wins out of four, and you can see that not too much is wrong at the Causeway.

All this, as well, with so many players integral to those double championships and European success missing. The incomparable Paul Volley has gone to Castres; Simon Shaw, Stuart Abbott, Craig Dowd, Josh Lewsey and Rob Howley are all long term injury victims, with the nearest to playing being
Lewsey in a fortnight; the trouble in getting Trevor Leota a visa to play again in this country; and injuries picked up by Fraser Waters and Lawrence Dallaglio, have meant reshuffles and use of the squad to try and boost the champions to Warren Gatland's desired position of top four by Christmas.
Peter Richards, who outshone Howley at times last season, is using his sevens experience to make a good fist of the inside centre position; the replacement for the formidable Dowd, Tim Payne, ended up starting for England in the summer; whilst John Hart and George Skivington have covered for Shaw, and the exciting Ayoola Erinle has finally had a run in the side.

And then we come to Rob Howley's replacement. Matthew James Sutherland Dawson, Saints legend, is now merely Matt Dawson, Wasps scrum-half. Whatever the reception he gets when the Wasps team enter the field of play (and I hope that it's a respectful one, but not too over the top), when the whistle goes, he's just another man in a number nine shirt whose influence has to be stopped if Saints are to get a desperately needed victory. There's no point booing the man beforehand, as he'll just thrive on that, because that's what he's had at away grounds throughout his career; he may
have been an annoying, gobby little mite, but he was our annoying gobby little mite.

Emphasis on the word WAS, for as we all know, there's only one 9 in England, and he's the man with the name "Robinson" on his back.

It's Sharky's time to prove, as if any further proof were needed, that he is the man for the future at the Gardens. It's far too simplistic to suggest that whoever wins the scrum-half battle will end up on the winning side, as both back rows will have an enormous influence on the kind of service their man gets. It's not a battle of an experienced man and a newcomer; both men have experience in spades, it's just that Dawson has the international caps. It's going to come down to a battle of who wants it more. The man wanting to prove that whatever he says about "bettering himself", he shouldn't have
been let go, and the man who took over the shirt wanting to affirm that he is, as all Saintly types believe him to be, the best man for the job.

And the first tackle between the "thug-in-chief" and the Question of Sport team captain should also be slightly tasty as well.

Solly has rung the changes in a major way for the first time this season - I'm pleased, but at the same time surprised as although I personally thought that things needed freshening up, I didn't expect it to actually happen. To the bench go Johnny Howard, Damian Browne, Grant Seely and the woefully out of form Ben Cohen; in come the aforementioned Sharky, Matt Lord, Andrew Blowers and last week's try-scorer, Wylie Human. The other change on the bench is Robbie Morris returning in place of Chris Budgen. Unfortunately Serena Williams declared herself unavailable due to not knowing the laws - but more of the referee later. The full team:-

15 Bruce Reihana
14 John Rudd
13 Mark Tucker
12 Marc Stcherbina
11 Wylie Human
10 Shane Drahm
9 Mark Robinson
1 Tom Smith
2 Steve Thompson
3 Robbie Kempson
4 Selborne Boome
5 Matt Lord
6 Darren Fox
7 Corne Krige (captain)
8 Andrew Blowers

16 Dan Richmond
17 Robbie Morris
18 Damien Browne
19 Grant Seely
20 Johnny Howard
21 Ben Cohen
22 John Clarke

No team news until Friday morning from Wasps, but to put the challenge into perspective, in two games towards the end of last season Wasps scored 88 points and 11 tries against Saints, against 25 and 3. The game last season saw Saints go in under pressure once again, after a dismal loss at Bath, and giving away a ten point start did not bode well, but a home win eventually was the result
by 27 points to 17, with John Clarke scoring an interception try on his debut. That will do nicely again.

One thing we can say, however, is that this match is not Dawson v Robinson, Dawson v Krige or Dawson v Northampton. Nor is it a game to ensure that the England team is ready for international games still six weeks away, despite whatever the uninformed national press think. This is Saints v Wasps, two of the elite of English rugby; no quarter asked for, no quarter given. To refer to it in any other terms is an insult to two great clubs and all supporters of club rugby in this country.

The referee on Saturday is Ashley Rowden, not an official that Saints have the greatest of luck with. He's taken charge of four Saints games in the last two seasons, with the last three - Newcastle at Kingston Park (19-23) just after Christmas, Bath in the Powergen at the Rec (13-42), and London
Irish at FG back in January 2003 (10-22) - all being dismal defeats. The Irish game was the occasion when Sky managed to pick up all of the early leavers - we now know why, it wasn't the game, it was the idiot in the middle! The last game that Saints won with Air Ash in charge was back on 15th September 2002, 36-28 at Bristol, notable for a disallowed Bristol try for being held up that had been on the deck for about five minutes (and yes, I know he said at the time that he "didn't have it grounded when I looked").

(Technically he did referee a Saints win over Sarries at the Fat Boy 7s in August 2003, but even then failed to do me for a late, high attempted chargedown whilst doing Large for a high tackle. Useless even then.)

So with a poor record against Wasps, a poor record results-wise with the man in charge, and an indifferent record so far this season. No pressure then! If, however, Saints are to have any real pretensions about doing anything this season, they must put away an understrength Wasps side at home. If they don't, then the doubts that have started to creep in that this year may not be as good as early September suggested will shroud the Gardens, and the vultures in the form of supposedly lesser sides in the Premiership will be fighting each other to pick points of the wounded Saintly carcass.

So we'll get a loud reception for Daws, louder chanting for Shar-keee, and a close match. Possibly. I have a (bad) sneaky feeling for an away win by about 5 points.

Just as long as it's not a Dawson try that wins it.