Walker’s Crisp Finish Sinks Saints

On the final whistle in that particular game a slightly less than gentile lady of Gloucester persuasion turned and raised her middle digit in a victory celebration more in keeping with the battlefield of Agincourt.

The score line today was similar but my how the times have changed. The much vaunted home bred tractor boys are long gone. They’ve done away with the Massey Fergusson image at Gloucester and the Cherry red is now more like Ferrari red. Slick, sleek and fast Gloucester’s young guns have definitely helped shift the focus of Rugby in the West County and the backs now see more than their fair share of the ball.

Having said that, a tractor might well have come in handy given the conditions and if you can imagine trying to drive a Ferrari across an ice rink then you’ll know what this game was like.

The downpour that greeted both sides as they emerged from the tunnel would have had Noah reaching for his hammer and nails and if the truth be know this turned out to be more of a godsend for the Saints than for Gloucester.

On top of the night time precipitation the rain made the surface more than suitable for the Keystone Cops than professional Rugby and that’s how much of the first half was played out.

But it was Saints who adapted to the conditions first up. Tonga’uiha made early inroads right through the heart of the Gloucester defence and Kydd was obstructed as a try looked imminent. Curiously Saints decided on a kick to touch rather than go for the 3 points, perhaps sensing some early vulnerability.

For once it paid off and on 4 minutes Dylan Hartley was bundled over in a maul that made mincemeat of the Gloucester defence. That was to be the only score of the game for the Saints, and remarkably the only score of the game for 68 minutes.

The line out call proved to be instinctive because there was to be little success for the Saints in this area. They missed the suspended Christian Short badly and Hartley began to miss everyone else in an effort to avoid the imperious Bortolami who can’t be far off being a candidate for Guinness Premiership player of the year.

Saints continued to probe and test the Gloucester back line. Fox turned over ball and Tonga’uiha put himself about the park. One high ball put pressure on the Gloucester defence but Saints failed to capitalise.

Clean ball in more than one sense of the word was hard to come by as both sides struggled to stay on their feet and neither team could put any shape on the game.

Gloucester made their first break through Richards on the turn of the 1^st quarter. He released Hazell who only had Cohen to beat, but Cohen was more than a match for the No 7 and the move broke down.

The engine was beginning to tick over for Gloucester and slowly they built, but the Saints were more than a match for them, defending stoutly around the fringes and consistently stalling the maul. Coping with the greasy ball at pace was too much to ask and Knock on’s were the order of the day as players took on the appearance of elephants on roller skates.

Despite the conditions Stephen Myler continues to impress, he

kicked well all afternoon, save the one missed touch and he effectively pinned Gloucester back in their 22 with kicks that clinically bisected Pryce and Balshaw throughout the first half. 

Balshaw, Gloucester’s resident China doll served up a beauty for Saints right on the 22 as he coughed the ball forward, but his pack saved the day as Robinsons put in found it’s way out on the Gloucester side.

5-0 at half time and Saints looked good value for the lead; although a few more points would have been nice from a Saintly perspective the defensive performance was certainly encouraging.

The second half started with a shocker from Lamb as the ball went dead. Northampton had a restart on the halfway line but that was about as close as they would get for the whole of the second half.

At half time someone had changed the tyres on the Ferrari and it was beginning to get a grip on the soggy Gardens turf but not before a brief bout of hare’um, scare’um rugby that had many watching through their fingers.

10 minutes in and Lamb made one of his trade mark show and go breaks, the ball was recycled quickly as they went wide stretching Saints left and right. Eventually the overlap appeared and Balshaw drew the last tackler with the intention of shipping the ball wide, but he underestimated the speed of the defender and knocked on with a gimmie virtually in the bag.

Gloucester were really beginning to go though the gears and the pressure was telling. Saints defended superbly and with no ball to play with there was nothing left to do but to put all their efforts in to a backs to the wall defence. Deja vu anyone? Surely not two weeks running?

Like Leicester the week before Gloucester huffed and puffed and heaved and shoved, and all to no avail. The pressure was unrelenting; penalty after penalty went the way of the visitors only for them to conjure up a knock on at the vital moment. But Saints couldn’t break free from their own 22 let alone their own half despite the best efforts of Myler.

As the final quarter approached, you wondered whether 5 – 0 might be enough. Time ticked by.

Eight minutes to go, Saints gave away the ball on half way, far enough out you would have thought to be able to defend effectively. Replacement scrum half Lawson popped a ball up on the blind side to the impressive Allen who had been pretty elusive all afternoon and on any other day might have been worthy of the man of the match award.