PerryGo: Lessons from Bristol Saints

By PerryGo
January 8 2003

Puzzled by spotting some ‘NEC-Mitsubishi’ advertising at the Stoop on Sat (tucked away in front of the cheap seats in the North Stand), sleuthing of a standard that would warm the heart of Hercule Poirot revealed that the proud sponsors of Quins & Bristol (sorry, ‘Shoguns’) have something in common.

Apparently, back in 2000, these two formed a joint venture from their respective companies with an awe-inspiring mission - “To develop, design, produce and market CRT/LCD monitors” - that would make William Shatner proud. Not that I have the faintest idea what it means or why it takes two mega-electronics companies to combine together to get it right?

Let’s hope that they never try to combine their rugby interests together. Apart from the threat of Brendon Daniel making a reappearance in a Quins’ shirt (no, he was on the Bristol side on Saturday - honest he was…) can you imagine the crowd problems?

“Come on you ‘see-aah-tee-elle-see-dees’…” doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, does it?

Mind you, I didn’t hear too many chants of “Show-guh-uns” on Saturday either (with a rising note for the ‘guh’, dropping down again for the ‘uns’, like in ‘Gloh-stuh-rrrh’… just ask a soccer fan if you don’t geddit).

What I did hear, though, was a fine pair of ‘dee-gee-errrs’ who had taken last week’s advice to heart and invested in a couple of plastic air horns. Well, sort of. Firstly, they had clearly invested after raiding a piggy bank – these horns would have embarrassed any self-conscious 5 year old, who would have instantly written them off as ‘just toys’. Secondly, and contrary to last week’s advice, to my horror they were seated in my beloved centre section of the East Stand! Thirdly – but, under the circumstances, I have to say endearingly – they only blew them at half time. Very Quins, that is - drowning out any Shoguns’ (sorry, ‘Bristol’) supporter with the temerity to cheer his side on while they were in the dressing room.

Anyway, back to the rugby. A win! And an entertaining match to boot. Lots of interesting stuff to talk about - and lots more fun doing so when we win than when we lose. Prof might even find some positives. Bristol’s equivalent of Prof (yes, I know, the mind boggles…) might struggle a bit, though.

I see that Malcolm Pearce (sugar daddy of Bristol/Shoguns) gave Peter Thorburn and the rest of the coaching team what in soccer they call a ‘Chairman’s vote of confidence’ after the match. Pearce set the scene by branding Bristol's performance ‘disgraceful’.

“We have an entourage of coaches here and they look to me an utter waste of time and money”, he said. “I would have thought 15 players coaching themselves and with a desire to win could have done better on their own”. No prizes for guessing what he’s thinking then…

First Course, Second Course…

It was fascinating not only to see the match against Bristol on the Saturday but also to join the hardy few who turned out in sub-zero temperatures to watch the second team against Northampton on Monday night.

More people really should come along to Second XV matches. Aside from the excruciating cold, it’s a good evening’s entertainment. For me it was doubly interesting in that back-to-back matches provide an opportunity to compare and contrast a few players and positions - to see ‘who’s hot’ and ‘who’s not’, as they say. Or, alternatively, to highlight who were Quins’ ‘Skodas’ against the ‘Shoguns’ and our ‘Sinners’ against the ‘Saints’.

Before we get on to individual contributions, in the Bristol game there were two crucial factors for us, I think. One, our forwards destroyed theirs in the set pieces. Two, the Bristol half-backs Pichot and Contepomi did almost nothing worth writing home about between them while, for Quins, both Duncombe and Burke played pretty well.

Duncombe’s form seems to be coming back, and Burke had one of his better all-round performances. We know he is world-class as a goal kicker, but his running play leading up to Gollings’ try, after picking up the loose ball, was a moment to treasure. Well done, Burkey. Some brave tackling contributions too. He’s not big enough to do a lot of damage, but you couldn’t fault his effort.

Sticking with the backs for a moment, Jewell was unlucky to have to go off with an injury, but I thought Ben ‘Frodo’ Gollings made a telling contribution when he replaced him. Benji (how can one man have so many nicknames..?) also played well against Northampton at full back Monday night, by the way. Quite aside from his pace, which is nothing to take lightly in either attack or defence, his left footed kicking – especially to touch – is really quite something and a definite plus in terms of giving the team options when paired with a right footed kicker like Nathan Williams. I would say young Mr. Gollings has played himself into a well-deserved starting berth next time out.

Meanwhile, Dan Luger proved many of his critics wrong with a gutsy, committed performance despite having few attacking opportunities (we’re still having trouble creating them in the backs…). He made a lot of ‘hard yards’ in attack, even after taking an initial tackle, and did well in defence too – an area he’s been criticised for – including making one superb cover tackle that I noticed. Possibly on one occasion close to the Bristol line he could be criticised for not changing the angle, by making an inside run to take the ball from Williams, but it was not overwhelmingly clear to me what Williams had in mind either. And you could say he suffered for it by receiving a hospital pass at the end anyway…

Staying with Williams for a moment, I think he’s been a fine acquisition on his form so far. A classy footballer, as I’ve observed before, with a good brain and more pace than at first you realize. I’m also impressed by the accuracy and consistency of his touch kicking. I suspect he’s put in some kicking time on the practice field, even though everything I’ve heard about him suggests he’s not a natural ‘training ground kind of guy’. You may notice that in order to ensure a safe touch most kickers (e.g. from a penalty) will aim to deposit the ball a good 10-20 metres over the touchline; our Nate, however, is perfectly content to land it inside the perimeter advertising..! That is risky and takes some confidence.

Just flipping across for a moment to the backs in the Second XV match, Seb Fitzgerald played pretty well before he was forced off with a shoulder injury. I’ve not seen much of him this season, but the evidence of Monday night seemed promising. Greenstock put in another performance of all-round competence at centre, and Matt Moore displayed the same strengths and weaknesses that I’ve commented on before, including a frustrating failure to see space around him at times (in attack and defence) and an apparent unwillingness to pin back his ears and take on the fullback by going for the corner. I say this not as criticism but as disappointment, by the way.

Ugo Monye had few chances to shine, that I could see, but that may be in part because I switched stands at half time which had the unintended effect of keeping him on the far side in both halves.

And Pudding

Which leaves Big Bill. Now, maybe I’m wrong (no doubt you’ll tell me…) but in the relatively short time he was on as a blood replacement for Chris Bell on Saturday he managed to miss three fairly crucial tackles fairly comprehensively, including one ‘Fijian blockbuster’ diving attempt in the 22 that not only failed to make any visible contact on its apparent target but led directly to a Bristol try. That plus not doing much in attack either.

Now in the seconds match on Monday, he scored two tries. You would think from that he played well, but I’m not so sure. It was not so much devastating pace and power as rank poor tackling from where I sat. Skeptics may care to note that Ryan O’Neill was at fullback for the Northampton/Bedford team before leaping to disagree with me on that point… I still see an aimlessness and uncertainty, allied to playing most of the match at a strolling pace. And, in contrast to Burke, he is big enough to do some damage in the tackle and it looks to me like you can fault the effort…

So far as the forwards are concerned, I can only praise the first team for their performance on Saturday. Very impressive all-round performance chaps. It was a treat to see the set pieces working so well. Codling at his majestic best; young Jon Dawson taking the much vaunted Andrew Sheridan to pieces in the scrum - I’m sure that’s warmed the hearts of ‘real props’ up and down the land – and more fine work by the indomitable Andre Vos and Dippy.

In passing, it was amusing to see Dippy out on the wing, when we were awarded a penalty in the Bristol 22, frantically trying to get Burke’s attention (anyone’s attention…) that there was an ocean of space around him for a cross field kick. After what seemed like ten minutes of trying, he gave up and went to rejoin the pack for the inevitable 5 metre lineout on the other side. Whereupon, when he was halfway back, Shaggy decides to kick the ball across to where he had been… Oh well.

Praise is also due to the second team forwards - especially, I think, the second and back rows. Once again, I am not as familiar as I would like with some of the players but I thought they collectively did a good job Monday night. Credit all round to John Kingston, maybe? Not so sure about Pablo Cardinali’s contributions, mind, either in the scrums (where he looked to be struggling) or in the loose, but I claim no expertise so far as front row play is concerned. If the referee can’t figure it out, what chance do I have..?

And On a Lighter Note…

Did you see Peter Thorburn lamenting the referees’ inconsistent interpretation of what he quaintly called “the tackle area”? Nothing to do with groins, ladies. No, this was a reference to the extent to which his charges were penalized for infringing. According to WoW’s excellent match report, Mr. Thorburn said “If we were wrong we expect to be penalised, but they’ve got to sort it out”. ‘They’ should be a reference to his players and their coaches (although in the case of the latter, it looks like they’d better be quick…) rather than the referees. From what I saw, Bristol’s offences were neither subtle nor effective – other than effective in conceding penalties and yellow cards, I mean. Many of those penalties looked to me to be conceded for blatant silliness such as coming in at the sides of rucks or interfering from an offside position. Mostly right under the referee’s nose.

I haven’t looked at the stats (maybe someone would like to do this..?) but it feels to me like we are not conceding many penalties this year, and particularly not for that kind of thing. The discipline, allied to no loss of effectiveness in the traditional objectives of slowing release etc., seems much better than it’s been in the past. More credit to JK? Or perhaps it’s just because we have a very experienced and technically proficient group of forwards right now.

Let’s hope the three week gap before the Cheetahs match is beneficial to the team. Hard to say how much good or how much harm it will do.

With Leicester stuttering along this season, the irony is that they are more beatable this year than either of the two previous years. It should be a great game.

Only problem is - WHAT THE HECK DO WE ALL DO UNTIL THEN?