By Wellsaint
October 27 2004

Well, all bad things have to come to an end, and Saints losing streak stopped at five with a much improved performance against Glasgow at Hughenden last Sunday in their first Heineken Cup Pool Three game. Out of the Sospan, into the fire?

Well, all bad things have to come to an end, and Saints losing streak stopped at five with a much improved performance against Glasgow at Hughenden last Sunday in their first Heineken Cup Pool Three game. The competition continues this week, and they don't come much bigger than this, as Saturday's visitors are our old rivals from the other side of Offa's Dyke - the Llanelli Scarlets.

Of course, Llanelli are no strangers to us, either from the amateur days, when the Llanelli game was one of the highlights of the season, or indeed in the Heineken Cup, where they managed to do the double over us last season, finishing our interest in the competition when they won at Franklins last year with the chip over from Barry Davies.

Previously, of course, the teams met in the semi final of the 2000 competition at Reading, where Saints won the tightest of tight games en route to that wonderful day at Twickenham in May 2000.

Neither team is having a particularly good season by their own high standards, and this will be seen as a must win side for both games as they seek to keep up the pressure on Toulouse in a pool where it is somewhat unlikely that more than one team will qualify for the next stage.


The Saints team announced for Saturday's match is as follows:


15 BRUCE REIHANA

14 Wylie Human

13 Marc Stcherbina

12 Chris Hyndman

11 BEN COHEN

10 PAUL GRAYSON

9 MARK ROBINSON

1 TOM SMITH

2 STEVE THOMPSOM

3 ROBBIE KEMPSON

4 Matt Lord

5 Damien Browne

6 Darren Fox

7 CORNE KRIGE (capt)

8 ANDREW BLOWERS


Replacements

16 Dan Richmond

17 Chris Budgen

18 Ed O’Donoghue

19 Grant Seely

20 Johnny Howard

21 Shane Drahm

22 Andy Vilk


The actual team that takes the field on the day could be somewhat different as there are a number of late fitness tests to be held, most notably on Steve Thompson and Paul Grayson.

The Llanelli team has been announced as well, and the line up is:

15 B Davies

14 G Evans

13 M Watkins

12 M Taylor

11 T Selley

10 A Thomas

9 D Peel

1 I Thomas

2 M Rees

3 J Davies

4 A Jones

5 C Wyatt

6 D Jones

7 S Easterby (capt)

8 S Quinnell

Replacements: P John, C Hawkins, B Griffiths, G Thomas, M Phillips, G Bowen, S Finau.

The game is live on Sky Sports 2 as the opening game in a triple header of live rugby, and for this reason, the kick off is at 1p.m. - so set off early! The weather forecast for the weekend suggests that it could be cooler (and wetter - quelle surprise!) so wrap up well and bring the wet weather gear.

Whilst Llanelli lost their opening game at Stradey Park last week, a number of players had excellent games in what were truly awful conditions - most notably the Man of the Match, Dwayne Peel. With Stephen Jones headed for pastures new, the fly-half duty falls to Arwel Thomas, who has never quite reached the heights that his early career suggested likely (no need to start on Saturday, Arwel!) Saints will, hopefully, be able to start with the Grayson-Robinson combination at 10-9, which would be a great boost to their chances.

The other key area for me is the scrum, where Llanelli were able to hold Toulouse for great periods of the game last week. With Tom Smith and Steve Thompson hopefully back to boost the front row, the contest up front should be a classic.

The prediction? Well, the problem in weighing this game up, quite apart from the
inconsistent nature of both sides, is that it's impossible to be certain as to what the Saints line up for Saturday will be. That said, in this competition, it is imperative to win your home games and to sneak at least one victory on the road to stand any chance of knock-out stage play, and more likely two victories will be needed. In the hope that last Saturday has helped boost what must have been a very fragile confidence level, and that the team is as announced, I take Saints to win a tight game by five points, in front of what is sure to be a bumper crowd. Just don't be late!

And remember, you can get your beauty sleep on Sunday, as the clocks go back - so an extra hour in bed. (Or maybe an extra hour in the pub on Saturday night - who knows....)