Northampton Saints v Wasps: Tom Vickers' big match preview

Competition: Gallagher Premiership (round 14)

Venue: Franklin's Gardens, Northampton

Date and kick-off time: Sunday, August 16, 2020, 3pm

Television coverage: BT Sport 1/Ultimate

Weather: Scattered thunderstorms, 22c

Referee: Karl Dickson (26th Premiership game)

Saints: Furbank; Mallinder, Dingwall, Francis, Tuala; Biggar, Mitchell; van Wyk, Haywood, Hill; Ribbans, Ratuniyarawa; Lawes, Ludlam, Harrison (c).

Replacements: Matavesi, Hobbs-Awoyemi, Franks, Coles, Tonks, Taylor, Proctor, Naiyaravoro.

Wasps: Minozzi; Kibirige, Fekitoa, Gopperth, Bassett; Umaga, Robson; Harris, Taylor, Brookes; Launchbury (c), Rowlands; Willis, Young, Shields.

Replacements: Oghre, West, Toomaga-Allen, Gaskell, Vailanu, Vellacott, Sopoaga, Mills.

Outs: Saints: Ollie Sleightholme (hamstring), Connor Tupai (wrist), Alex Waller (achilles), Tom Wood (pulmonary embolism).

Most recent meeting: Sunday, January 5, 2020: Wasps 31 Saints 35 (Gallagher Premiership)

Tom's preview: Having covered Saints full-time for close to a decade, I’ve become used to the summer months when life at Franklin’s Gardens goes into sleep mode.

Days and weeks come and go without any news of note as players jet off on holiday and coaches spend their time formulating their plans for pre-season.

Unlike in football, there is very little movement in terms of player transfers, with clubs having done their work on that front earlier in the year.

By and large, squads are set in stone and you know which men will be wearing the club colours during the forthcoming campaign.

But this year has been so different, for obvious reasons.

And while the Covid-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on life at the Gardens, it has opened the door to be more creative when it comes to content.

I wrote a piece back in March when the world of sport started to shut down.

It was centred around a promise that here at the Chron, we would do everything we could to continue to provide some sort of sporting distraction.

Team-mates features, where players took the mickey out of their colleagues, proved popular.

So did features with current squad members as we found out how they were handling self-isolation, stranded from their friends away from Franklin’s Gardens.

And there were the usual, but rather strange, farewell interviews as players departed with little fan-fare.

The likes of Cobus Reinach and Ben Franks left without too much noise, with no full house at Franklin’s Gardens to say goodbye to them.

Instead, there were silent shirt presentations in front of empty stands.

It was all so bizarre, but another sign of the change that the world has undergone in recent months.

Rugby was put on the shelf, kept for another day.

But the point of this article is to reflect as we get set to take the lid off the tin and allow rugby to enter our lives again.

It won’t be coming back quite as we know it.

Yes, there will still be 15 men on each side scrapping with all they have got.

But, for now at least, they won’t be doing it backed by the noise of their adoring supporters.

Yes, that will be very different.

But, first, we simply have to sit back and appreciate that, here, again, we have rugby.

A sport that brings so much joy to so many.

You will watch it on television for now, but that is surely better than not watching it at all.

Its return will hopefully lift spirits for people who are badly in need of a boost right now.

And its return will allow us to banish just a little of the bizarreness of months gone by.

Back in March, these days when the Saints players graced the pitch at the Gardens, seemed so far away.

At times, it felt like we would never witness them again.

But here we are.

On the eve of a new old season with new and old faces.

Whether Saints win or lose, and you would expect them to do more of the former than the latter with the squad and conditions they have at their disposal, it is time simply to savour the return of a sport we all feel such passion for.

It won’t be as we remember it yet, but it will allow us to create more memories of it, good and bad.

The journey back has not been an easy one, but that will only make those first steps across the whitewash even sweeter.

So, sit back, savour your role as an armchair fan for now and dream of a day when you can be back in the seat you really want to be in.

Tom's prediction: As Chris Boyd has already pointed out plenty of times, there are likely to be quite a few mistakes as sides get back in the swing of things, but I'm backing Saints to piece things together quickly to claim a win here. Saints 25 Wasps 18.