Even though it’s not decided like it’s footballing
counterpart, the rugby Premiership is very much a marathon, not a sprint, but
Northampton can announce their intentions to right previous wrongs by beating
Harlequins at the Stoop tonight.
Losing finalists last season, Jim Mallinder’s men have been
the nearly men of English rugby’s top table for what seems like an age, going
close but never quite capturing the silverware – making the playoffs for the
last two years but being edged out by Harlequins in the 2011 semi final and
being taken apart in last year’s final by Leicester after Dylan Hartley’s red
card. Their record against the big three last year was a source of weakness –
at the end of the last regular season Saints had only won one of their last nine
matches against Quins, Saracens and Leicester – but they are capable of beating
the best away from Franklins Gardens, as their superb semi final win at the
Allianz Park in last year’s semi final and their revenge on Ulster in last
year’s Heineken Cup.
Over the summer. to bridge the fine gaps that have kept
silverware away from Mallinder’s men, Northampton recruited three of the best
players in world rugby – George North, Kahn Fotuali’I and Alex Corbisero – to give their
side a massive boost in quality, while making the coup that was Alex King from
Clermont to help run their backline. New squad members can sometimes take time
to gel but in a 38-11 day trashing of Exeter, where they were 31-6 up at half
time, Northampton looked a rejuvenated side who had been given new impetus by
all three of their arrivals.
Harlequins’s core players, having been at the heart of
England’s Lancaster revival, ended up being fatigued and below par for many
parts of last season, and they were well beaten in their semi final and faded
out of contention for honours early. This year they should be on the premise
once again this season, but only three points separated the sides in the
regular league last year and Quins were pulled back from 22-5 up last year to
holding on at 22-19. Quins won on the opening weekend at Twickenham but only
thanks to Andy Goode hitting the post with an incredibly difficult touchline
conversation and Northampton, who looked to have hit full stride based on their
opening day win, can serve notice of their title aspirations once again. Coral
give 4/5 for a three point start and that tooks well worth taking.
Over at Ravenhill, Glasgow can lay down a big title marker
by overturning Ulster on what is sure to be an emotional night at Ravenhill, the
first anniversary of former centre Nevin Spence's death this weekend. Both
sides have title aspirations, with Ulster topping the league last season and
going down in a close final they chose to play at the RDS for some reason,
losing to a Leinster side that Glasgow could have beaten had Stuart Hogg’s
conversion gone through.
Glasgow haven’t won at Ravenhill in their last four games in
all competitions but face an Ulster side that’s not as strong as it could be
and that showed a worrying lack of finishing skill and composure in their
defeat against the Dragons last week. Glasgow had to grind to beat Cardiff at
home in atrocious conditions but have Stuart Hogg, Ryan Grant, DTH van der
Merwe and Josh Strauss returning to the side to give more firepower and are capable
of causing a shock or at least staying within a losing bonus point. Instead of a single win wager, double them with a straight Northampton win for a tasty double.
Elsewhere, Munster can give seven points to Zebre, who
fought well against Connacht but are facing a side that should have ambitions
on the title this season. Munster had the very easy beating of Edinburgh last
week in a game that could have seen them stretch their margin significantly if
they had wanted to tighten up, but a more expansive game should present no
problems.
Advice
5 pts Northampton +3 (4/5 Hills)
2 pts Glasgow +6 (10/11 Stan James)
1pt Munster -7 (10/11 general)
1 pt Northampton/Glasgow double (6.51 Bwin)
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