By The Saracens
December 23 2021

Worcester Warriors seem to like a visit to StoneX (Allianz) at Christmas! Apparently it’s because this is a “derby weekend”. So Sale play Newcastle, Bath play Glos umm Wasps play Irish (presumably no one mentioned to Premiership Rugby that Wasps moved to Coventry), Quins play ….. Saints! And we play Wuss. Maybe a lesson in geography needed? Wuss head coach Jonathan Thomas said “Saracens is not quite a local derby….” (too right its over 100 miles!).  

Looking back (and excluding last year obviously) the home Christmas fixture has featured Wuss in 2 of the last 3 seasons (excluding the last one of course). Sarries won 25-17 in 2018 (after trailing 11-17 at half time – sound familiar?) and 46-31 in 2017 (17 all at half time) so neither game was straightforward. Wuss are having a better season than last year, sitting in 10^th place on 19 points. Sarries, having played one less game, are still 2^nd on 32. But as we have seen in recent weeks, Sarries are also having a bit of a mid-term wobble with only 1 win in our last 4 games (and 2 defeats). Hopefully the enforced break following last weekend’s COVID casualty will have allowed the team some breathing space and the opportunity to regroup. Interestingly, Worcester have exactly the same record in the last 4 games: won 1, drawn 1 lost 2! Worcester have also won 2 of the last 3 encounters between the 2 teams – both at Sixways. However the last game at StoneX (or Allianz as it then was) in 2020 resulted in a big Sarries victory 62-5. In fact Worcester’s only victory at Sarries was back in 2006 at Vicarage Road when they won 20-17 (and that performance is still engraved in my memory!).

Worcester have a couple of friendly faces in their squad – Christian Judge, who joined Sarries from Cornish Pirates for a 3 week loan in 2018 and ended up taking a Premiership Champions medal with him to Bath where he spent 2 years before moving to Sixways (I seem to remember we didn’t really want him to go!) and Sione Vailanu (who played 4 games for the club in 2018 before moving on to Wasps). Another familiar face, Chris Ashton, departed Wuss earlier this month following the arrival of Steve Diamond. Judging by comments on the Wuss Message Board, Ashy didn’t make a lot of friends at Sixways. Shame, I always rated him when he was with us.

Worcester will be without Ollie Lawrence, Beck Cutting and Willi Heinz but Francois Venter, Niall Annett & Gareth Simpson, who all picked up knocks recently, should be available for selection. Melanin Nanai is out of COVID isolation and Rory Sutherland is said to be 50:50. Duhan Van der Merwe has been a big ball carrier for Wuss who also feature familiar names like Matt Kvesic, Scott Baldwin, Will Chudley, and Matt Garvey  in their squad.

What sort of team will Mark McCall be able to put out? Allegedly much of the squad have been in isolation following the positive COVID tests after the Edinburgh game. The new government advice concerning reduction in the isolation time may be helpful and give the team a few extra days together. I haven’t heard any injury updates. Is Billy fit? What about Tom Woolstencroft? Ben Harris? Kapeli Pifeleti? Rotimi Segun? Not to mention longer term injuries to Faz, Jamie and Duncan. So guessing the team for Sunday is likely to be even trickier than usual! Will Goodey stay at 10 or will Loz get a go? Can we field a decent front row? Is Vinnie back from his hols? I suspect the enforced rest will mean that we see Maro at any rate. Christie and Lewington have been featured quite heavily on Social Media this week which usually means they’ll be in the squad for Sunday. Oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound. Let’ s have a stab:

Goode, Lewington, Daly, Tompkins, Malins, Lozowski, Davies; M Vunipola, Woolstencroft, Koch, Itoje, Isiekwe, Earl, Christie, B Vunipola.

The referee is Christophe Ridley – he who got it all wrong at Welford Road earlier this season – assisted by Dan Jones & Neil Chilvers. TMO is David Rose.

Sarries really should win this one – history is very much on their side – but given recent events who knows! Personally I’ll settle for having a game to go and see!