Saracens
Saracens v Newcastle Red Bulls Premiership Preview
By saracensfan62
October 26 2026
I do like the small ironies in life. Christian Wade needs one try to own the Premiership try-scoring record outright, and this is the game where he gets his chance. He drew level with a former Saracen himself Chris Ashton the other week and he gets the chance to make history at the ground Ashton used to play at. I’d like him break the record somewhere else if at all possible. After 2 shambolic performances in league (v Quins) and Europe (v Connacht), we are back at the StoneX for a pretty vital game against Newcastle. Lose this, and you feel our season really has gone to pot before it’s even got properly going.
Saracens are 2-2 league wise and sitting on 11 points in 5th. We beat Leicester 40-38 in a messy yet thrilling encounter and comfortably swatted a weakened Bristol side 30-7. Losing 21-17 to a shoddy Sale side was very poor at a stretch, but yesterdays 33-15 defeat at Harlequins was the worst of the lot. We conceded four tries in the first 36 minutes, gave away 13 penalties by the 50th minute and had two yellow cards. What happened to the Wolfpack defence? What happened to any form of structured attack? Who knows.
Newcastle are 1-3, with their only win coming against Sale. They lost at home to Leicester 24-19 in a very exciting encounter, lost again at Exeter 34-28 before beating Sale 17-3 at Kingston Park, scoring all their points in the second half. Dan McFarland’s side have picked up four bonus points from their games thus far this season so it’s fair to say they have been competitive in most of them.
Tactical Analysis
Newcastle seem to have become more physical this season than. Their emphasis has always been on tight, forward focused rugby and winning those key collisions and they really seem to have found their mojo at various points so far. They have a lot of fight in them, and we must be careful not to underestimate them in any regard.
Our scrum was the one clear positive at the Stoop and we’ve got a maul try in each of our last two league games. Sure we can’t defend mauls to save our lives but we can at least try and make the most of our own one. Red Bulls have had trouble in this area this season, so I’d expect us to lean on it and try make the most of it. It’s rather tricky to try and describe Saracens’ style of play this season – clunky attack which has never stepped out of 3rd gear, a confused set of backs who seem to be all on varying wavelengths, a scrum that can dominate one day and capitulate the next, and a fly half who has the wobbles off the tee. Hmm….
Against Quins, a run of penalties inside our own 22 gave away easy field position and they got a penalty try out of it. Newcastle are a team that stays in games and a Hodge kick from the tee will punish anything silly. Fewer penalties would help us more than any tactical tweak I feel. Newcastle are good at keeping the scoreboard ticking over and a string of penalties in kickable areas can quickly turn into 9, 12 points unanswered.
Key Player Matchups
Roti Segun vs Christian Wade
Two very similar style players and yet they have their own unique aspects. Wade has been absolutely prolific thus far in the season, he has scored six tries in six league games and the way we’ve been defending you would bet that he’ll get a few more. He scored from a simple finish in the corner against Sale so we can’t let Newcastle get him one-on-one with our defenders in space. Whoever is on our left wing will have to deal with him all afternoon.
Alfie Barbeary vs Hoskins Sotutu
Two absolute tanks of back rowers, all power and aggression. I confess I haven’t seen a huge amount of Alfie Barbeary but I don’t think his true ability has really come through just yet. Hoskins being an all black will mean he adds a level of flair as well as physicality to the RB’s back row, so we will have to keep a watchful eye on him as the game proceeds.
Jamie George vs George McGuigan
Two classical hookers. Both with excellent darts and rather partial to a maul try. This will be a great matchup and no doubt whoever gives away those free kicks for wonky throws or breakfoot offences at the scrum will cost their team in the long run.
Team Prediction
I am not going to try and predict a matchday 23 for next weekend due to the rotation that seems to be happening amongst the squad from week to week. No doubt I’ll only get it drastically wrong.
What is known is that Olamide Sodeke broke his hand v Connacht so he won’t be involved, Fergus is concussed so Farrell will be stepping back into the position of 10. Let’s hope he plays better than he did in Ireland. Olly H and Sione I believe are injured still so expect to see Nick T, Lucio or maybe Angus in at centre. I can’t make anymore predictions than that I’m afraid folks!
Conclusion and Final Word
Must win game this, simples. Both for the league and our own team morale. As ever, come on you sarries.
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I think we have to go as close to the Gun 15 as possible for this one. Taking known injuries in to account, I would hope to see:
Carre
Jamie
Street
Maro
Martin
JMG
Earl
Barbeary
Williams
Faz
Roti
Sione
Cinti
Noah
Daly
Dan
Mawi
Weilbach
Tizard
Michelow
Bracken C
Bracken J
Malins
Quote:TommyKentish
Didn’t Barbeary get injured against Connacht? It would be nice to have some updates on that front. I’d quite like to see Wade get his try, a nice little bit of history to witness, just not in a winning effort please. Shame I can’t make the women’s match, it would a nice tonic after the start the men have had.
He went off injured but as always no news on the severity
Quote:SarrovQuote:TommyKentish
Didn’t Barbeary get injured against Connacht? It would be nice to have some updates on that front. I’d quite like to see Wade get his try, a nice little bit of history to witness, just not in a winning effort please. Shame I can’t make the women’s match, it would a nice tonic after the start the men have had.
He went off injured but as always no news on the severity
Had his arm supported by his shirt suggesting some sort of fracture.
Quote:Sarriebone
Worth pointing out that your ticket is also valid for the women's match that follows at 6pm
Have I been particularly dim (rhetorical question), but today was the first time I heard that Saturday is to be a double header. And the advert I saw for tickets didn't even have KO times on it.
Pila ovata optima est
Would ordinarily be perturbed about him but we seemed to get largely on his good side against Leicester a few weeks ago
It's a long time since Sports network paid anything!
Quote:TommyKentish
Didn’t Barbeary get injured against Connacht? It would be nice to have some updates on that front. I’d quite like to see Wade get his try, a nice little bit of history to witness, just not in a winning effort please. Shame I can’t make the women’s match, it would a nice tonic after the start the men have had.
Looks like Barbeary back in full training from the latest social media video
Sione also in the video
The one with Dan in shows how incredible he is through contact if we could just fine-tune the decision-making and get his support on the right page.
We do get rare sightings of Nairau and Tuimaga tomorrow night!
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2026:10:29:21:44:21 by The Bard.
Quote:The Bard
Looking at the team selected to play Cambridge University tomorrow night, Angus Hall is starting which presumably means he’s not in the mix. Weibach is on the bench so the same presumably applies to him.
Weibach is on do get rare sightings of Nairau and Tuimaga tomorrow night!
Where is the team listed?
Quote:SarrovQuote:The Bard
Looking at the team selected to play Cambridge University tomorrow night, Angus Hall is starting which presumably means he’s not in the mix. Weibach is on the bench so the same presumably applies to him.
Weibach is on do get rare sightings of Nairau and Tuimaga tomorrow night!
Where is the team listed?
[www.instagram.com]
Quote:SarrieboneQuote:SarrovQuote:The Bard
Looking at the team selected to play Cambridge University tomorrow night, Angus Hall is starting which presumably means he’s not in the mix. Weibach is on the bench so the same presumably applies to him.
Weibach is on do get rare sightings of Nairau and Tuimaga tomorrow night!
Where is the team listed?
[www.instagram.com]
Ta
1 Alex O’Driscoll
2 Theo Dan
3 Marcus Street
4 Nick Isiekwe
5 Hugh Tizard
6 Nathan Michelow
7 Toby Knight
8 Alfie Barbeary
9 Tom James
10 Owen Farrell (C)
11 Rotimi Segun
12 Sione Va’enuku
13 Nick Tompkins
14 Tobias Elliott
15 Elliot Daly
REPLACEMENTS
16 Jamie George
17 Phil Brantingham
18 Al Clarey
19 George Martin
20 Ben Earl
21 Charlie Bracken
22 Max Malins
23 Noah Caluori
15 Josh Hodge, 14 Christian Wade, 13 Alex Hearle, 12 Will Rigg, 11 Werner Kok, 10 Brett Connon, 9 Simón Benítez Cruz; 1 Pouri Rakete-Stones, 2 George McGuigan, 3 Elliot Millar Mills, 4 Oscar Usher, 5 Cam Jordan, 6 Max Hicks, 7 Tom Christie (captain), 8 Sam Graham.
Replacements: 16 Samson Adejimi, 17 Tom West, 18 Francisco Moreno, 19 Finn Baker, 20 Ollie Leatherbarrow, 21 James Elliott, 22 Zack Henry, 23 Chris Harris.
Not available for selection: Sammy Arnold, Benjamín Elizalde, Allan Ferrie, Ethan Grayson, Cameron Hutchison, Franco Molina, Richard Palframan, Reuben Parsons, Raffi Quirke, Micky Rewcastle, Adam Scott, Hoskins Sotutu, Rusi Tuima, George Turner, Sam Waugh
Many posting on this forum have been banging on for sometime about youth being given a chance. Well this is a chance for some of them and they have to take it. Similarly squad players sat just below international honours currently need to show why they deserve to be talked about in the 23. Theo Dan, Nick I, Alfie, Nick T and even Faz and Max. Now is the time to remind everyone why the coaches have backed you over the years.
Quote:LondonSarrie
"we have to trust the team are well prepared". First time for everything...
Fair, based on the past couple of seasons. Big game for the coaches too.
Lose tomorrow and we are in a world of trouble. Saints at home, then Glos and Exeter away, followed by Bath at home are the next 4 in the league.
The fixture list couldn’t have given us a kinder start really. We haven’t played a decent side yet!
So pick a starting XV that has trained together all week and have some cavalry on the bench to hopefully see us home. We definitely need a win and ideally 5 points if we are going to push for top 4 this season.
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