Sarecens out to take the JP Morgan’s trophy back says Jackson Wray
Newcastle overcame the well-fancied Harlequins and Saracens sides to triumph in last year’s final at the Stoop, beating Sarries 31-21 in the final with Alex Tait and Chris Pilgrim scoring tries late on for the Falcons.
That was Saracens first ever defeat in the tournament that has grown in momentum heading into its fourth year and, with silverware of any description a priority for Mark McCall’s side, expect them to once again be among the front-runners.
Last year they fielded James Short – scorer of the only try of the 2011 Aviva Premiership final – and the giant wing is set to feature again alongside the likes of Nils Mordt, George Kruis and Luke Baldwin.
Meanwhile back-rower Jackson Wray used last year’s tournament as a launchpad to regular first-teamrugby, playing in more than 30 games last season.
And he believes Saracens’ pre-season programme makes them ideally suited to be challenging for silverware once again.
He said: “I think one of the things that stands to our advantage is the fitness work we do in pre-season had a lot of similarities with Sevens.
“We aren’t just doing hill sprints or shuttle runs, we do a lot of running that is similar to game situations with fluid movements.
“Losing to Newcastle last year was disappointing but we have to accept they played well.
“Saracens’ philosophy is that they want to play well in every competition they enter and I feel we will have a very strong team again this year.”
Quins too will be strongly fancied having dominated their Group A in Bath with the likes of Ross Chisholm and Charlie Walker running amok before they came unstuck in the series final on home turf against Newcastle.
They will again have the advantage of having the Stoop, in the first group stage, and also the fact that Conor O’Shea’s brand of running rugby in XVs ideally transferable to the shorter form of the game.
Quins also have the advantage of possessing one of the 2011 tournament’s standout stars in Ollie Lindsay-Hague, who Howard Graham, Quins’ academy coach and former England Sevens captain, believes can go on to conquer both forms of the game.
“Ollie Lindsay-Hague has a talent you can’t really coach,” said Graham. “On the Sevens pitch he just shines through because he has more space. Transferring that to the 15s is obviously his main goal for this season, but he is an exciting talent and with ball in hand with a broken field there are few people who are better.
“He is working hard on his strength and conditioning. Ollie has certainly got the potential to be leading the side in five years’ time.”
London Irish and Wasps make up Group A, which kicks off next Friday at the Stoop before switching north the following week where Sale will host Leicester, Northampton and London Welsh – who have taken Newcastle’s place in the tournament.
Group C takes place the following week at Kingsholm for the West Country leg, where Gloucester, Exeter, Northampton and Bath – who progressed to the series final last year – will do battle.
MATTHEW EVANS
