Last year’s
London Double Header was a day of two halves – Wasps vs. Quins provided a
thrilling 80 pointer whilst Sarries vs. Irish was a whitewash in one direction;
40-3 to Sarries. The fixtures remain the same for this year’s double header
however let’s hope that we get two thrillers instead of just one. For those
of you who are unfamiliar with the concept of the London Double Header let me
give you a little bit of background; it started in 2004 and in its 9 years Twickenham
has hosted 490,782 people and witnessed 793 points scored. The concept is simple to start the season with a BANG at the home of England Rugby.
The honour of
the first fixture in 2013 LDH goes to London Irish vs. Saracens. Yet again at the
end of last season London Irish experienced a mass exodus of players, no less
than 18 individuals departed Sunbury, with many now tipped as ‘ones to watch this season’ at
their new clubs. Marland Yarde, Sailosi Tagicakibau and Topsy Ojo remain at the club and provide the excitement in the London Irish back line. Tomas O’Leary will need to make a nuscience of himself at scrum half and provide quick ball to release Irish's danger men whilst the forwards will need to front up against Borthwick and Co.
The Sarries
squad remains largely unchanged from last season, there are just a few key
additions to note… a second Vunipola, the other Tagicakibau and Quins
breakthrough player of last season James Johnston not a bad summer of signings really!?
With Owen Farrell’s boot likely to be as
metronomic as ever I predict that their scoreboard will tick along in a
familiar Saracens fashion again this season.
 |
| Double Vunipola Trouble at Saracens this year. |
In the second
fixture Wasps want to eradicate the painful memories from Twickenham last year when
they let split a 20 point lead and were defeated by an inspired Quins team. They will look for leadership from newly
announced captain Chris Bell and to their “Wing Men” Christian Wade and Tom
Varndell to fuel a victory. I've not doubt that both Wade and Varndell will start this season where they left the
last; scoring tries for fun and running rings around the opposition. New fly half Andy Goode also has a
key role to play to command the game from 10 and prove that there is
life in the old dog yet.
Quins have
made the fewest signings of all of the Premiership teams over the summer bringing in just 3
players – Paul Doran Jones, Nick Kennedy and
Paul Sackey. Their focus is to continue the champagne
style of rugby that they have crafted at the Stoop over the past few years and go all the way this year.
Chris Robshaw is out to show the world that he is not giving up his Quins or
England shirt easily and the likes of Danny Care, Mike Brown and Nick
Evans need to continue to be brilliant individually and collectively to drive this still relatively young Quins squad forward.
This match is
likely to be the tighter of the two fixtures – personally I think that Quins
will come away with the win and start their season off strongly before they
host George North’s Northampton the week after although Wasps won't be a push over. In the other fixture I think
Sarries will be too powerful for Irish however I don’t believe it will be
anywhere near the whitewash that it was last year… 5/10 points in it maybe,
certainly not 40!
Twickenham is
not the only ground waking up from its summer hibernation across the country
Kingston Park, Kingsholm, Franklin’s Gardens and Welford Road all welcome back
the sounds and smells of live Premiership Rugby. With BT Sport arriving to provide
us with the most energetic and in depth coverage that we have ever seen (you just had to enjoy Rugby Tonight with Austin, Matt, Bayfs and Co. last night to see this)
and the big name players who have transferred in to play in the Aviva
Premiership this season is set to be one of the biggest and most exciting yet.
The wait is
nearly over… we have just over 24 hours before the starting whistle blows at
Kingston Park for the fixture in the 2013/14 Aviva Premiership Season; Newcastle vs. Bath. That is just enough time to iron your club shirts, purchase your tickets, set
up your BT Sport and mentally prepare yourself for one heck of a season.
