In short, this is the guy who first penned ‘Oh when the Saints go marching in'!

But for once, i'm not so worried about it. In certain ways, i'm comforted to hear it's grating lyrics reverberating the great (and not so great) stadiums that host the Guinness Premiership. This is because it means Northampton have returned to the premiership, and in my book, this can only be a good thing. Yes I found it funny to see a big club suffer the ignominy of travelling around grounds with less funding than my local crochet club, but in reality, the league was a lesser place without them. I know we were often guilty of putting in atrocious performances against the likes of Rotherham or Leeds over the years, but they never really offered anything other than the odd glorious upset, and the proud way in which they went down fighting. Now, like Quins on their return, we have a promoted club who are ready to compete, and often do more so. Don't get me wrong, I long for the day that some of the newly professionalised clubs make the big time and allow rugby's horizons to continue expanding, but for now, what I yearn for is a Premiership that is constantly as competitive as it is now. Bristol and Falcons aside, anyone can beat anyone on their day, and not just by a lucky call. 10 teams in our league have the talent to make the top four if we concentrate and acheive consistency....

....which leads nicely into my look at Sarries. Concentration could hardly be used as a watchword after the regular dropped balls fiasco of the first two games, but we have faith in the Aussie Maestro, and boy was that faith rewarded in the second half against falcons! Admittedly the first half was bitty and patchy, but most of that was due to Newcastle seemingly failing to realise that we play under a changed set of rules this year, and getting the breakdown wrong every time. For once though, we took our chances. Not often you get chance to say that as a Sarries fan! To go in 15-0 up at half time was clinical, and allowed us the freedom for the spectacle that was to come. And boy what a spectacle! Jackson has said this week that the tries that resulted from what normally would have been a kick to touch came from it being instilled in them to back their skills if the opportunity presents itself, and this was something that arrived under Gaffney, and has been built on ever since. This also doesn't just apply to the backs - it was quite clear that our pack is looking increasingly dynamic. Owen has dispelled all lingering doubts I had about him being lazy, Jack's starting to become a more than able stand-in for Wikus, the front 5 are tearing apart all in front of them, and Andy Saull was everywhere! I've had the, well luck is the wrong word to use here, but anyway, to be on the receiving end of a fair few hits from him during his days as a fly half playing for Woodford, so I can only dream of what his tackling strength is like now! And his work in the rucks is something we have badly needed to have since Hilly announced his retirement. All in all, we are in good shape, and one win off the top of the table after 3 games. Now we need to take it further and attempt to do to Saints what we did so well against the falcons.

To our opponents then. 6 months ago, for anyone to be coming off the back of a win against Wasps would mean they are playing some stunning stuff, but (and how great is it to be able to say this) Wasps are currently playing some atrocious rugby. They don't have the excuses of world cups depleting their squads now, they're just playing badly. However, those on the pitch are still a talented bunch, and Northampton's win was still a sign of a club going in the right direction.

Unlike my first review, which also had to cover a Kiwi 10 battle, I am not as concerned about this one. Whilst Spencer can produce moments of magic, his best days are behind him, and he no longer has the ability to run the game in the way Evans or Jacko can. He's a threat, but not a huge one. Looking at the back three again, I haven't seen enough of Chris Ashton this year to judge how he's stepped up from his record-breaking exploits last year, but I wasn't as impressed as others by his scoring abilities last year - I could have scored about half of them. In fact anyone with a decent pair of hands can catch balls and stroll over from 2 yards. However, he clearly has some ability, so it will be interesting to see if he can prove me wrong. It's the rest of the back 3 that offers the biggest threat - Lamont and Reihana. Their club captain is very solid defensively, and offers more than a fair share of cutting edge going forward, and Lamont adds some much-needed physicality to their backline. None of them offer the delightful running lines of Haughton or Ratavou though.

I'm not going to break down the entire Saints pack, but the interesting character here is Dylan Hartley. A precocious talent, but with a temper to match. Left on the bench for the opener, he made a huge impact when he came on. However, it's been clear already that he is easier to wind up than an entire battalion of Nutcracker soldiers, so that's bound to be an area we target. I also want to mention Tom Smith - he's a guy I've admired for his ability for years, but presumed he must have retired when they got relegated, but no! He's still making regular appearances! That's commitment for you.

However, when we talk about commitment, we have to mention our potential double centurion. There's no need for me to search my repertoire for fruitful metaphors, Chesney is Saracens. That guy's blood cells are probably moon and star shaped! I really hope he makes his 200^th Premiership appearance at home. The man deserves it. Knowing him, he'll probably come on and be back off in the bin within 5 minutes, but that's what we love about him. It's men like him that make rugby the glorious game that it is!

So to our first Sky game of the year. We saw sporadic reoccurrences of sky syndrome last year, but it seems to have nearly passed. We're a more efficient unit these days, and I believe we will have too much for the Saints, so rather than James Milton Black's penmanship being heard around Vicarage road on Saturday evening, it'll be business as usual, with rousing calls of...

ALLEZ LES NOIRS!!!

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