By Griff
December 23 2004

The much anticipated post-Christmas game is this year against struggling Northampton Saints. The guys and gals in black, green and gold have had a torrid year, and are languishing at the bottom of the ZP, but have they turned the corner ? Firstly, apologies for the lack of any substance in this preview. I thought Brian had written one, and maybe he has, but as I can't find it I've written this. If Brian's materializes then we'll have two.

The Christmas game is the second game targetted by LI marketing to promote heavily after the St Patrick's game. Last year's visit by Wasps pulled in a crowd of 20,318 and early signs are that Monday's crowd will be close to that, if not bigger. The Kids Go Free deal (with its new revision) is a smart move and will bring in many a parent desperate to get out of the house after the festivites.

The game itself is a bit of a difficult one to call. Looking at league positions you'd think Irish would be expected to thump the visitors but there are plenty of reasons why league positions don't tell the whole story.

Firstly, Northampton always play well at the MadStad, just as Irish seem to travel to Franklin's Gardens well. For the past two seasons Irish have won in Northampton with Saints winning the return fixture. In Novemeber we collected the 4 ZP points at the Gardens thanks to Mark Mapletoft's 21 point haul, history would appear to point to a Saints victory to avenge that.

Secondly, the coaching set-up at Saints is very different now that Alan Solomons has left leaving Budge Pountney and Paul Grayson in charge. The evidence of improvement was clear when Northampton won at home to Toulouse, although the Toulousain took their revenge at home. Since then they have dispatched Bedford in the Powergen Cup. Winning is a habit and one that Northampton are desperate to get into.

Thirdly, stage fright. It's uncanny but Irish do have a tendancy to fail to turn up in front of a big crowd. Since beating Saints in the 2002 Powergen Cup final Irish have stuttered in front of every large crowd. Not only at home but at Twickenham in the season-opening London Double Header.

The Irish team has been anounced and two changes have been made from the team that dominated but failed to destroy Worcester. Paul Sackey makes a welcome return, displacing an unlucky Justin Bishop and Robin Reid keeps his second half number 8 shirt giving Phil Murphy a welcome rest. It's a very strong team and it will need to be if Saints play anything like they should on paper.

I find this too close to call. By rights it should be an Irish victory but Saints really are a very good side and we've seen all too often that they can turn on the style. This will be the first indication of noticable improvement for the Northampton board and I imagine the coaching and playing staff will be eager to demonstrate their new form. If Irish can put together some attacking moves behind the awesome defence they've put together then it could be a very merry Christmas for the home team.

Maybe the difference, in the end, will be spiritual. Saints have signed a new club pastor this week, perhaps he'll prove to be a lucky talisman ?

With the able Tony Spreadbury in the middle it should be a cracking game. C'mon you Irish!

It's just left to me to wish all visitors to The Craic a very Merry Christmas from Brian, SubTel and myself. Have a good one.