Deacon and Forrester can tilt contest for connoisseur

Rugby union: Double-chasing Gloucester look to have the edge as Northampton try to atone for three previous failures in Twickenham finals

Andy deacon viewed Gloucester's last cup final appearance from the anonymity of the Twickenham terraces, which was as good a place as any, given that his colleagues lost by a record margin of 42 points to a state-of-the-art Bath side who spent what remained of the amateur era milking the local bragging rights for all they were worth. "I remember it being boiling hot, and I remember John Gadd getting himself sent off," Deacon said this week, rather mournfully. "We were a tired, injured side, and we played like it."

Thirteen years down the road, Gloucester are neither tired nor particularly injured – not even Deacon himself, who, at 37 and plenty, will end the proud reign of his fellow prop forward, Robin Cowling of Leicester, as the oldest man ever to play in a domestic final. A product of the same Longlevens club that gave the troublesomely confrontational Mike Burton to the world – may the good Lord forgive them their sins – Deacon replaces Phil Vickery, the England tight head currently struggling with back problems, in a double-chasing team otherwise free of big-name absenteeism.

If the former drayman represents a dying breed of honest-to-goodness, play-for-the-fun-of-it rugby nut – "All my friends will be there for the final, people from Longlevens and the local petrol station and the shops I use," Deacon said – James Forrester, 15 years his junior, stands for something very different. Here is the future of English union, standing tall alongside its past. If there is a more exhilarating back-row runner anywhere in Europe, then Europe has yet to put him on public display. We are talking sensation on legs here – legs the length of the Cotswold Way. If Northampton fail to keep him under lock and key, he is capable of pretty much anything.

Between them, Deacon and Forrester have the winning of what promises to be a contest fit for the connoisseur. Up there at the sharp end, the older man will seek to tie the uniquely gifted Tom Smith in Gordianesque knots at the scrummage, to cramp the Scotsman's style and prevent Northampton benefiting from his low-slung ball-carrying and crafty off-loading. Back there among the loose forwards, Forrester will be expected to pull Mark Connors and Andrew Blowers, two magnificent close-quarter operators, as far from the heavy traffic as possible, and leave Budge Pountney fighting a lone battle at the breakdown.

Gloucester look stronger in the second row, Northampton more potent at half-back; the West Countrymen have midfield options coming out of their ears, especially if James Simpson-Daniel gets a run at outside centre, while the Saints have two high-class opportunists in John Leslie and Peter Jorgensen. Elsewhere, the battles within battles are wickedly even. Northampton may have the better wing partnership in Bruce Reihana and Ben Cohen, for instance, but Gloucester have Marcel Garvey – and if he gets going, there will be no more explosive individual on view.

Attitude will count for everything. Northampton have been here on three previous occasions, and have copped it each time; Gloucester, on the other hand, have won two titles outright and shared a third. One-nil to the Premiership leaders. Yet Northampton's players are operating in a secure, profit-making professional environment, while the Gloucester boys are wondering if and when they will be paid their dues from a cupboard so bare that the buzz-words at Kingsholm are "redundancy" and "wage-cut" rather than "cup" and "final". That makes it one-all.

"We have been at the top of the Premiership for ages, but we can still screw up the whole season," Forrester said this week. "That would be devastating." As devastating as players being laid off at the end of next month? "I guess people are pretty worried at the moment. It would be surprising if they weren't. I have another year on my contract, so I suppose I'm one of the lucky ones. Even so, it would be nice to have a degree behind me, to have something to fall back on."

It takes some believing that a player of Forrester's stamp – a new-age professional who may, if he continues at his current rate of progress, make the England squad for the summer Tests in New Zealand and Australia and, by extension, the World Cup in October – should feel the need to talk in such downbeat fashion. But that is the way of it at Gloucester these days. If they hold themselves together under pressure this afternoon, they will deserve the riches of the world.