By Jason Harris
April 4 2003

Richard Hill has been forced to miss Saracens' vital relegation match-up with London Irish due to an ankle injury sustained whilst playing for England in Dublin last weekend. The news will be a devastating blow for Saracens as they play game 19 of 22 in the Zurich Premiership just three places and five points ahead of their visitors who still have a game in hand.

It's difficult to take this match in isolation as four of the six candiates for National League One rugby next season are in action. And one eye will be kept on all matches involving teams marooned in the southern half of the table from here on in. Right up to the dreaded last day on May 10 for some.

Of those four teams, only Saracens are at home this weekend. Quins travel to Leeds on Friday night and despite being only two places behind the Tykes in the standings, the gap will look as wide as the M1 for the lads from TW1. Leeds will be favourites to take winning points with Quins, perhaps, netting another point which may take them that one small step closer to safety.

Bath, meanwhile, have an unenviable task as they visit Wasps on Sunday. Very few pundits will give Bath the time of day and a big Wasps win is being predicted by some of the pundits.

Which leaves us Saracens v London Irish. Irish, though they are rock-bottom, always seem to play a good game against the Men in Black. Sarries, if recent team selecitions against the boys who play in Berkshire are to be taken into consideration, have been guilty of not showing enough respect. That lack of respect has resulted in three consecutive defeats at the hands of the men in green, two of them convincing ones.

Last time Irish were in town they annihilated an inexperienced Saracens side 55-13 and the last time the sides met - last autumn at the Madejski Stadium - a game that was to be a formality for then second placed Sarries turned into a nightmare as Irish capitalised on their visitors' mistakes to record an easy 32-10 win.

For Sunday's encounter Shelford seems to have selected the strongest starting team at his disposal with Tom Shanklin getting the nod at centre in front of Ben Johnston and Kevin Sorrell on his return from injury. Shanklin partners Tim Horan.

A risk, perhaps, is Niki Little's selection at outside half and Thomas Castaignede at fullback. Against Wasps, Castaignede scored one of the tries of the season and was a thorn in the side of the opposition all afternoon.

The forwards simply must perform on Sunday. After a decent enough display against Bath - when it was the backs that let the side down - they reverted to type and were overpowered by Wasps. Without set piece ball and parity in the loose, a most costly defeat could well be staring the Men in Black in the face. Not only that, Irish would move off the bottom and if a try-scoring bonus is accrued, could leapfrog Sarries and take ninth place.

Should Bath prove the beneficiaries of a Wasps shocker then Saracens will have just the Newcastle Falcons (who by 5pm Sunday will have a game in hand) between them and oblivion. A win for Sarries will put further pressure on the Irish and take the Men in Black at least nine points away from that dreaded last place.

But a win it must be. Defeat, with the current situation in the table at this late stage of the season, would be very difficult to contemplate.