Should Saruman have accompanied Mauhur and his "lads" ?

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

At the time, Saruman's forces were heavily involved in fighting the Rohirrim at the Fords of Isen, and he wouldn't have wanted to gamble by sending such a large force away from that action. Also, that might have galvanised Théoden to action despite the work of Wormtongue, and Saruman did not want Théoden mobilising the Rohirrim en masse.

Exactly. Actually Saruman DID send probably as large group as he could - maybe actually a lot more than was necessary! He sent a group that would not be detected immediately because of its size, and be mobile enough, but still it was spotted. Actually, if we trust Uglúk, it was the fault of one of the small Moria-orc scouts who failed to kill the horseman who spotted them.

And as for Saruman's involvement, like it was said, he arrived too late. And aside from that, there has been a lot of speculation whether it actually was real Saruman or just some "image projection" of him.