Northampton Saints
News: ERCC: Made From Girders - Glasgow Saints Preview
By Merlin-k
November 19 2015
After a battling home success against Scarlets at Franklin's Gardens last weekend, Northampton Saints travel north on Saturday to take on Glasgow Warriors in the second round of pool matches in this year's Champions Cup. COYSDC messageboard regular, Merlin-k (Alasdair to his mates), picks up his quill and looks ahead to what should be a fascinating encounter...
GLASGOW WARRIORS vs NORTHAMPTON SAINTS
Saturday, 21st November 2015 - 5.15pm (Sky)
POOL THREE, MATCH TWO
SCOTSTOUN STADIUM, GLASGOW
MATCH PREVIEW
Made from Girders
I went to university in Glasgow. Many weekends spent standing beside muddy pitces with rain pouring down on me and trying to see the rugby ball through the gloom. That was 25 years ago. Rugby has changed a lot in that time. Proper stadiums mean less mud for a start. But more than that. The Rugby World Cup was just being born, now it's matured into a thrilling spectacle where even the smaller teams cannot be taken for granted. And rugby has entered the professional era (something as a Welshman I regret, the Welsh club game has never recovered). As a result Scottish rugby shifted to two geographic teams (after a dalliance with four teams that never worked). While it took Glasgow and Edinburgh a long time to come to terms with the changes, in the last couple of years they have certainly proved that they can adapt. No longer the whipping boys, now they do some whipping themselves, and often by playing an exciting brand of rugby.
Rugby styles and tactics have changed as well. Blitz defenses. Drift defenses. Crash ball. Punch-Wide. Playing off the 9. The Wolfpack (practiced by one team to create effective but dull rugby). 10 man rugby. 15 man rugby. As a result the Premiership and the Pro 12 have developed distinct styles. The Premiership is about fronting up, big scrums, attritional. The Pro 12 is about running backs, quick attacks, fast hands. Neither has really managed the Holy Grail of 15 man rugby. Some of that is changing with the Premiership developing some exciting backs (although the Saints have recently forgotten about theirs) and the Pro 12 getting stronger scrums. Each has its advocates. But one of the exciting things about European Championship games is that we will see a clash of two teams used to very different styles and who play week in and week out against very different attack and defence. This can lead to both interesting, and unexpected, results.
So where are we with form? The Warriors have won 4 of this seasons 7 games in the Pro 12. Two less than the Scarlets. This includes home wins against Connacht, NG Dragons, Ospreys, and an away win against Cardiff Blues (as someone who grew up supporting Cardiff it pains me to admit that this was possibly not the toughest of challenges!). Away losses against Munster and Leinster (although both close games), and most interestingly for us after last weekend, a home loss against Scarlets. All of which places the Warriors firmly mid table. And with a history of underperforming on the European stage there could be some nerves on the big day.
As to the Saints? Well, not exactly a happy one so far. We are definitely NOT on form. Possibly not been on form since the Tigers match last Christmas. Leaving us near the bottom of our own league. But we do have some exciting new blood. JJ Hanrahan, Paul Hill, Jamie Gibson, Kieran Brookes - all have shown some inspirational moments that suggest they could soon become firm Saints favorites. And despite the forum advising any visiting Warriors fan that the Saints sky has fallen in, there have been some hints that we aren't too far off. One more pass going to hand, one less stamp (no way should THAT try have been overturned!), one less turnover, and we would be looking at a very different position.
Who can we expect to see on the pitch? I have to look at the proposed line up for last weekend to name the Warriors - they were going to field Hogg, Seymour, Bennett, Horne, Lamont, Russell, Blair, Grant, MacArthur, Puafisi, Nakarawa, Gray (capt), Harley, Favaro, Strauss. There are some good names there, plus they have a couple of new boys they could bring in, including 124kg of powerhouse Taqele Naiyaravoro who we saw playing for the Wallabies in the World Cup. As for the Saints, Jim has proven himself as fairly conservative (I'm not holding my breath for seeing Northy at centre) so I'm expecting any changes to be driven by injury. After the Scarlets match it is unclear what damage may have been done, and the Saints always keep their injury list close to their chest, but there were a few limping off early, Ken Pisi and Christian Day the biggest concerns. There are a lot of calls on our forum for the blooding of some of our young guns, but if one of those self same young guns lost us the game then I suspect next week the forum would be full of lamentations for not sticking to experience. So I'm going to lose the two possible injuries, and bring one back, but also drop George Pisi who does seem to be struggling. So my expected Saints team is Foden, Elliot, Hanrahan, Burrell, North, Myler, Dickson, A. Waller, Hartley, Brookes, Craig, Paterson, Gibson, Wood, Dickinson.
There is a French contingent for the officiating as we see Pascal Gauzere take point. Given a choice I prefer a French ref over an Irish one, the French tend to appreciate our scrum a bit more. Gauzere is not a name that springs to mind to be honest, although he did ref our rather convincing win over Treviso just under a year ago. However, before we get too excited by that, it appears that Pascal does like his yellow card and our discipline hasn't been too good recently so it won't be too surprising if someone spends some time on the naughty bike. Both Courtney and Daisy have fallen foul of his pocket before. We will need to be careful not to get pinged off the park, Warriors will take complete advantage of that.
Glasgow missed their game last weekend in horrific circumstances. How much of an impact will this have on the game? Will the team have lost an edge by having a weeks rest or will they be refreshed and hungry? Similarly, will a tight win for the Saints have built their confidence or left them with more questions? Ultimately I think it comes down to this. Rugby is as much about the top two inches as it is the muscles in the arms and legs. For this match I think the head is even more important than usual. Both teams will have their own gremlins to battle. On Saturday we will find out who is better at exorcising them.
(Oh, and Saints by 3).
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Discussion started by ComeOnYouSaints.com , 19/11/2015 12:54
ComeOnYouSaints.com
19/11/2015 12:54
19/11/2015 12:54
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intelligent preview. Thanks for that. Not going so another to be watched from behind the sofa !
Saint 'til I die
Saint 'til I die
Interesting read.
Not sure where we are on fitness with locks - both Day and Craig went off injured... loved Victor saying available if selected for Glos game - First Name On surely.
Is Dylan concussed did I hear - if so how long out for?
Glasgow will be physically fresh after non-playing week, but mentally fatigued by stress of horrors in Paris. Personally think we need a little rotation to counter this?
Not sure where we are on fitness with locks - both Day and Craig went off injured... loved Victor saying available if selected for Glos game - First Name On surely.
Is Dylan concussed did I hear - if so how long out for?
Glasgow will be physically fresh after non-playing week, but mentally fatigued by stress of horrors in Paris. Personally think we need a little rotation to counter this?
Boys and girls, I forgot to mention that this is Merlin's first article for COYSDC - thanks again, fella, sterling work!
Thanks Merlin - intelligent and informative. I agree that it will probably be a tight match and am hopeful that Saints will prevail.
Good preview. Saints will need to play far better than they did on their last visit to Scotstoun - that was a long long journey back on the train with our Euro hopes down the pan.
Good read, cheers. One comment "Taqele Naiyaravoro who we saw playing for the Wallabies in the World Cup."
We didn't. He didn't make Chieka's final squad. He still took him to the US to play the final warm up after not including him in the squads for the 4 nations or other warm ups. And then gave him 7 mins off the bench to cap him for Oz, making sure once our S&C coaches and Townsend get a hold of him he'll go back to Oz a better player. A big lump who you'll need to close down quickly but he'll need to catch the ball first.
We didn't. He didn't make Chieka's final squad. He still took him to the US to play the final warm up after not including him in the squads for the 4 nations or other warm ups. And then gave him 7 mins off the bench to cap him for Oz, making sure once our S&C coaches and Townsend get a hold of him he'll go back to Oz a better player. A big lump who you'll need to close down quickly but he'll need to catch the ball first.
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