RugbyRebels

Saracens: Gallagher; Segun, Lozowski, Tompkins, Lewington; Goode (capt), Spencer; Adams-Hale, Pifeleti, Lamositele, Skelton, Isiekwe, Clark, Earl, Wray.

Replacements: Gray, Barrington, Wainwright, Kpoku, Hunter-Hill, Whiteley, Manu Vunipola, Obatoyinbo.

Northampton Saints: Furbank; Collins, Dingwell, Hutchinson, Naiyaravoro; Grayson, Taylor; Waller (capt), Fish, Hill, Ribbans, Moon, Coles, Tonks, Wood.

Replacements: Van Vuuren, Van Wyk, Painter, Bean, Eadie, Tupai, Symons, Sleightholme.

Saints severely depleted in the backrow. This would normally be the ideal time to play Saracens away with the internationals away, but with all our injuries I'm not hopeful of coming away from Allianz with much

Adam_P wrote:Saints severely depleted in the backrow. This would normally be the ideal time to play Saracens away with the internationals away, but with all our injuries I'm not hopeful of coming away from Allianz with much

If we can get parity it won't be so bad but I fear this may be another defeat with a large score.

The quality Sarries can still put out given their absences is scary, really. Though for once they aren't particularly deep on the bench

Looking forward to CHH getting some game time off the bench (hopefully).

Peej wrote:The quality Sarries can still put out given their absences is scary, really. Though for once they aren't particularly deep on the bench

Not sure about the front row though.

Good to see Segun getting a go on the wing - he looked very handy indeed in the cup game warmups, so it'll be interesting to see if he can produce that in proper games.

Puja

Looking on the bright side for Northampton, Furbank is having his second run out since being off long term with concussion and he is a class act. Hutchinson and Dingwall are also going well at centre and could prove to be a lovely complimentary pairing, with Dingwall leading the defence and Hutch tearing up going forward. Being able to put out a lock pairing with the quality of Moon and Ribbans with the absence of 2 international in the position, with Coles out of position too is pretty nice.

Agreed. I’m a touch surprised Coles is at 6 over Ribbans though. I would have assumed the other way around.

On the Saracens side, I’m surprised Adams-Hale is starting over Barrington.

Decent game so far pretty even.

Far too many dropped balls from Saints so far

Quality finish from Hutch

Saints counter attack is so good since Boyd took over, Sarries knock on 5m out and we're straight down the other end scoring seconds later

Good game so far. Saints making the passes stick a lot better later in the half.

Was that forward pass from Naiyaravoro not knocked out of his hands by the Saracens tackler?

How the hell did Tempest not penalise Saracens for not retreating 10m for the tap pen?!

Adam_P wrote:How the hell did Tempest not penalise Saracens for not retreating 10m for the tap pen?!

Rare to see the ref do that with a chip over and catch, perhaps?

Fun game well done saints.

Great start to the season for Saints. If we can cut out the many, many handling errors - we will score a lot of tries this season. Young Tonks on his debut at 7 had a good game, and Ribbans was quality throughout

Scary to think how close Sarries took it despite pretty much not having 1 starting player in position pretty much.

We nearly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory but just held on. Good young team.

Ribbans was very good for Saints. Generally quite impressed by some of their youngsters too.

Earl was excellent for Saracens. Yet another good back row option coming through for England.

Ribbans and Earl were both very good. I'm liking Henry Taylor quite a lot. Saints are great to watch. A bit more control up front along with little more pragmatism is going to bear fruit for this team.

Enjoyed the game a lot but I can't get my head around top club games being played when international players are missing. It just seems wrong and amateurish.

Tigersman wrote:Scary to think how close Sarries took it despite pretty much not having 1 starting player in position pretty much.

Saints have pretty much the same number out or injured. In all we're without:

Hartley
Franks
Franks
Lawes
Ludlam
Brussouw
Reinach
Mitchell
Mallinder
Biggar
Francis
Proctor
Gibson
Marshall
Harrison
Haywood
Tuala
Ratuniyarawa

Oof - didn’t realise the absentee list was so long ...