The Premiership play-offs kick off on Friday when Saracens take on Northampton Saints in the first semi-final at Franklin's Gardens
The Premiership play-offs kick off on Friday when Saracens take on Northampton Saints in the first semi-final at Franklin's GardensThere have been 39 Premiership semi-finals since the play-off format was established in 2002-3, and only six away wins.
Added to that quirk is the assessment by Mark McCall, the Saracens director of rugby, that his reigning champions have shown their top form in an up-and-down season when they have been on the road.“The peculiar thing for this year about us is the gap between us at our best and us at our worst,” said McCall, whose side finished fourth in the table after losing at home to“Trying to figure that out is for another time.
Alex Waller scored the decisive try that day, and the long-serving prop starts in Northampton’s front row again now in what could be his last appearance before retirement. Saints’ director of rugby Phil Dowson said of Franklin’s Gardens: “ energy that we get from playing at home. We train out there, we eat down there, we get drunk in the changing room occasionally – every week we are here, so there’s a definite bond to our home. And also the atmosphere the fans drive, all your family in the crowd, all those sorts of things.”
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