Nosebleed territory for north east rugby after last week. By the time the dust settled on Derby Weekend we’d actually leapfrogged Exeter thanks to their loss at Ashton Gate leaving the Red Bulls in the unprecedented heights of eight place, a Heineken Cup spot! Add to that raft of international call-ups, including a much deserved Scotland invite for Ollie Leatherbarrow, and it’s been a pretty positive week all around for us. There’s even talk of Max Hicks getting an England call up (I’m not going to dive down that rabbit hole, the lad is definitely kiwi but at this point it doesn’t seem to matter to World Rugby and besides that, unfortunately for him, he plays in the one position that every international team seems to be loaded at). There was also the news that we’re getting at least another two years of Tom Christie. Signing players is one thing, but having quality operators wanting to stay at the club is something else entirely and is a welcome return after the lost generation of Radwan, Pepper, Blamire et al.
Up next then, a Halloween trip to North London for the first of a league and cup double header against Saracens. Let’s hope the only spooky surprises come from the plastic pitch at the StoneX. That’s another landmine I’m going to tiptoe around given the artificial turf at KP although I will say the amount of times we’ve managed to get a game on by just shovelling he snow off the pitch makes it feel worth it for us. On the pitch Sarries are living in that mid-table washing machine that seems to be a hallmark of the last few years of Prem rugby, with two wins, two defeats and a points difference of basically zero. Digging a little deeper seems to muddy the waters though as their wins have come against Leicester and Bristol (both top 4 teams) and their losses against Harlequins and Sale (bottom 4 teams). Maybe that eighth place will do us some good.
In terms of personnel, it’s all change for Sarries after that disappointing loss to Quins; Owen Farrell is back in at fly-half and Elliot Daly at fullback being the two most eye-catching as well as the new lightweight Alfie Barbeary at eight. It’s also a big milestone for Hugh Tizard who reaches 100 appearances in the engine room. Beyond that, Jamie George and Ben Earl look a scary combo off the bench and there’s the usual combination of Prem stalwarts and a sprinkle of quality internationals.
For the Red Bull’s it’s mostly the same side that did the business against Sale last week, the only changes to the starting XV being a return for Cam Jordan and Sam Graham getting the nod at eight. It looks a strong offering again and hopefully this weekend we can see a bit more of actual rugby from them with conditions looking a lot better for Saturday afternoon. That’s good news for Christian Wade as well as he looks to put Chris Ashton in the rear-view mirror. I would really love for that moment to be at home but the way he’s scoring this year it could very well be this weekend.
Danger man – Owen Farrell. It’s hard not to look at both team sheets and see Faz as the standout piece of quality on either side. Watch for him pulling the strings for the rest of a decent looking Saracens outfit.
Prediction – Away from home I can’t see us winning this one, I think there’s at least one bonus point in it though.
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