Dursley Sport
Gloucester Rugby column by ex-England star Alastair Hignell
9:00am Thursday 9th February 2012
AT least Rory Lawson has something to shout about.
While the Gloucester scrum-half captained Scotland A to a scarcely believable 35-0 win over England Saxons at Galashiels, all the other Cherry and White journeys across Hadrian’s Wall last weekend proved fruitless. While Jonny May, Freddie Burns and Rupert Harden suffered with the Saxons, Jim Hamilton and Alasdair Strokosch were just as dismayed in the blue of Scotland.
Their only consolation as Gloucester prepare to take on Northampton in the Aviva Premiership this weekend is that their club-mates are nowhere near as wasteful as their international colleagues. Unlike Scotland, Gloucester know where the try-line and, as they proved against Toulouse in their final Heineken Cup pool match, they know how to cross it.
And, even though a depleted Gloucester lost at London Irish last weekend – surrendering in the process their slim chance of retaining the LV Cup – they showed that in two-try full-back Ian Clark they have found yet another high-class finisher.
This week’s visitors also put out a patched-up side last weekend. Five Northampton Saints – Ben Foden, Chris Ashton,Lee Dickson, Dylan Hartley and Phil Dowson – tasted Calcutta Cup victory at Murrayfield and will expect to be in the thick of the action when England’s sweet chariot rolls into Rome. In their absence Northampton shrugged off the previous week’s thrashing at Bath to hammer Wasps by 57 points to 10.
The Saints who come marching into Kingsholm this Saturday will invariably be of the lesser-known variety but there’s no doubting that they will pose a serious threat. The highly-regarded coaching triumvirate of Jim Mallinder, Dorian West and Paul Grayson were well in the frame for the England job that was eventually entrusted to Stuart Lancaster, Graham Rowntree and Andy Farrell, while the financial clout of the Barwells – Leon recently succeeding father Keith as chairman – has ensured that the Saints’ ambitions on the field have been supported by a profitable business off it.
With that sort of infrastructure it was no surprise that Northampton reached both the Aviva Premiership play-offs and the Heineken Cup Final last year, nor that they have so many players involved in the full England set-up. The only surprise this season is that it has taken them so long to settle.
Admittedly, they were heavily depleted by World Cup call-ups – as well as a large England contingent, Northampton also supplied players to Scotland and Tonga – but, in Heineken Cup terms, they never recovered from the opening day defeat inflicted by Ronan O’Gara’s injury-time drop goal for Munster. By the time of the return fixture – when the Saints were blown away by a sumptuous Munster performance at Milton Keynes – Northampton had already lost interest in the competition.
But they’re back on track in the Premiership. They come to Kingsholm in third place, a good eight points adrift of Saracens, the team immediately above them, but only points seven points clear of the Cherry and Whites, who are five places below them in eighth.
With seven points separating six teams, the battle for Premiership play-off and Heineken Cup places have never been more intense. And with Northampton supplying so many players to the England cause, there’s never been a better time to take on the Saints.
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