By Leipziger
February 9 2008

The Premiership restarts for the Falcons this Sunday with the visit of Saracens to Kingston Park. The 'Men in Black' boast a squad packed with stars including token All Black Chris Jack, England's Andy Farrell and our former captain Hugh Vyvyan, and coach Alan Gaffney will be hoping they can finally fulfil the potential they've had for the past ten years.

However, Saracens are the only English team to lose at home to the Falcons since November 2006, after our glorious 19-22 victory at Vicarage Road just seven weeks ago thanks to tries from Mathew Tait, Toby Flood and Jamie Noon, and Jonny Wilkinson’s boot.

 

Fitness-permitting, all four of our full England lads should be available on Sunday, as well as our veritable smorgasbord of A internationals.  Saracens’ main England star, Farrell, has been left out of the 6 Nations squad, whilst the likes of Kevin Yates, Dan Scarborough, Matt Cairns, Richard Hill and Vyvyan look to have their international careers behind them now.

 

As always, the Watford side come north with a strong squad, bolstered by Italian prop Matias Aguero in the summer, although he has played just 65 minutes so far, and containing the superb South African international scrum-half Neil De Kock who scored against us in December.

 

De Kock can form a formidable half-back partnership with Glen Jackson, a former New Zealand Maori player and reigning PRA Player of the Year whose boot is a potent weapon, although Scottish international Gordon Ross is also available when required.

 

Sunday saw our visitors consolidate fourth place in the table with a 19-6 win at home to Worcester, four penalties and a conversion by Jackson of Fabio Ongaro’s try sealing the victory which followed a 26-20 defeat of Bath in late January.

 

In all, Saracens are on a four-game winning run which has seen them also beat Biarritz and Glasgow to set up a Heineken Cup quarter-final, their first, with the Ospreys in Watford in April, just a fortnight after the two meet in Cardiff in the last four of the LW Friendly Cup.

 

Saracens’ last away match in the Premiership, in early January, saw them lose 18-3 at Bristol, only their second away loss of the season along with Sale in October, and Leeds, Worcester and Harlequins as well as Wasps at Twickenham have all seen the Fez Boyz leave with the points.

 

Llanelli, in the Cup, and Biarritz in Europe are the only other sides to beat Saracens on the road this year, whilst ourselves and Gloucester are the only teams to win in Watford.  The superb season Saracens are having so far suggests we will have a huge task on Sunday to keep up our own good home record.

 

Fletch has made a number of changes from our last outing three weeks ago at Leicester, with Lee Dickson and Geoff Parling returning, whilst Andy Buist starts his first game since September and Phil Dowson is captain at number 8.  With all our England boys available, Joe McDonnell is left out due to the foreigners rule, and Mark Sorenson takes a well-earned break in New Zealand.

 

15 Mathew Tait
14 Tom May
13 Jamie Noon
12 Toby Flood
11 John Rudd
10 Jonny Wilkinson
9 Lee Dickson
1 Jon Golding
2 Andy Long
3 Carl Hayman
4 Andy Perry
5 Andy Buist
6 Geoff Parling
7 Ben Woods
8 Phil Dowson (captain)

Replacements:
16 Matt Thompson
17 David Wilson
18 Ed Williamson
19 Brent Wilson
20 James Grindal
21 Tim Visser
22 Ollie Phillips