Saints squeeze past Irish at the Madejski.

noisy lot!
By Mark Hazell
October 28 2002

This weeks COYSDC match report comes from guest reporter Mark Hazell. He had the questionable honour of reporting on a match that was described as dire by some and turgid by others. Smudger (Wayne Smith) also described the game as 'both ugly and beautiful'. Here's how Mark saw it.

Saints moved into third place in the ZP after a very hard-fought and at
times bitter 14-12 victory at the Mad Jet Ski, thanks in the main to Larry's
boot and an awesome, in-your-face pack performance.

Four changes saw Smith, Leslie, Thompson and Seely in for Stewart,
Sleightholme, Budgen and Soden, whilst the referee turned out to be Steve
Leyshon, he of the "play til Sale score" antics earlier in the season.
Ironic then, that it was he who helped Saints get off to the ideal start,
penalising Drotske for blocking after a mere 8 seconds, which allowed Larry
to open the scoring.

On three minutes came the first of two "meetings" between Budge and the good
Dr Venter, after Chris Sheasby knocked on a high ball. Saints got the
penalty, miles away from the original incident, and the lead was doubled.
Things continued to go well; Irish were penalised again, this time for going
over the top, and Larry made it three from three to make it 9-0 after nine
minutes. At this point, Irish looked like that they were on the end of a
battering.

The game, after such a frantic start, then quietened, which allowed Irish to
get back in it, but their tendency to tap quick penalties rather than go for
position or for goal, worked against them as they seemed to knock on every
time the ball reached the third pair of hands, and on more than one occasion
Saints took advantage to run the ball back into the Irish 22.

And then the tide turned. On 21, AB was penalised for not rolling away -
Everitt 9-3. From the kick off, the ball somehow worked its way into the
Irish 22, Lionel was tackled without the ball (missed by Leyshon, seen by
everyone else), Irish broke, and the move ended with Bealer being penalised
for not releasing the ball right in front of the posts. Academic for a
kicker of Everitt's consistency, even if he did take forever to kick it.
Incidentally, we timed the four Everitt penalties - the slowest was 55
seconds, the quickest 40. Does anyone else in the Premiership take that
much time?

With Irish attempting to gain the ascendancy, it was Saints who ended the
half on a high. A Tom Smith kick and chase led to a penalty in
the corner, which Larry kicked to touch. From the lineout, the ball was put
back to Larry again, whose cross kick found a leaping Ben Cohen, and
Kingsthorpe's Finest went through Sackey and Horak for the try about a metre
from the corner. The conversion was missed (just), but with the territory
that Saints had enjoyed, a 14-6 first half lead looked a fair reflection.

The first score of the second half was always going to be important, and
after sustained Saints pressure, it was Irish who got it. The ball was
knocked on, and after a long kick away, Bealer got himself into trouble just
outside the 22, and an assisting Steve Williams was penalised for going over
the top. 14-9 to the good guys.

Once again, Saints conceded a penalty soon after the restart, when AB was
harshly penalised for not rolling away whilst being laid on. We now had a
two-point game, and half an hour for either side to go and win it.

On 56 came the controversy. AB was injured in a "collision" with Venter,
and although I didn't see how, I was told later by those further back in the
East Stand that it appeared that an elbow was involved. Inspirational
player though he is (and Irish certainly looked a different side to that
which surrendered at Sale without him), it certainly seems that Dr V has
something against the Saints. Just as in the cup final, no action was
taken, and AB was replaced, originally for blood, by JP. Hopefully it will
not mean the loss of AB for the trip to Kingsholm, but given the amount of
hits he has made this season, law of averages said that he had to take one
back eventually. Shortly after this, a struggling Bealer (he had been
dumped over his own try line after one high kick) was replaced by Sleights,
with Raspberry moving to full back.

With the wind being multidirectional, the instruction had obviously gone out
for the ball to be ran back from inside the Saints 22. However, the Irish
tactic of Everitt hoisting high, and Venter nailing the catcher seconds
afterwards was working wonders for them, and it only seemed a matter of time
before a drop goal opportunity was set up. Sure enough, with eleven minutes
left, the chance came as the ball was fed back from a scrum to Everitt, and
whilst players and fans celebrated, Mr Leyshon signalled for a 22 restart,
and the lead remained at two.

James Brooks became our third full back in fifteen minutes on 72, and was
next to be tested by the high ball. This time though, he kicked, launching
the ball from deep into tough near the Irish 22. After his 40 minutes from
hell at Sarries, it looked like he had been shopping at the confidence store
and bought himself a bucketload.

Just as importantly, Snowy Soden came on for Lionel with two minutes left,
and his first contribution was to win a crucial turnover just when it looked
like Everitt's right boot was twitching again. From the turnover, Saints
stormed right to the Irish line, and just when it looked like a second try
would seal it, Horak infringed and took a walk.

Larry went for the kick, and the subsequent miss led to a nervy minute or
so, but unlike Sale and Biarritz, the defensive line was not going to be
broken, and four vital points had been won. A special word must go out to
the pack who as I said earlier were awesome, helped in no small part by a
lineout that worked big style, winning 17 of 22 on Wally's throw, and
stealing 5 of Irish's 17. Indeed, such were Irish's tactics of the high
ball and chase in the second half, that they only had 6 lineouts, and Saints
stole three of them. Williams and Connors once again had immense games.

A badly needed result after seeing Gloucester lose at Wasps, and it looks as
if next Saturday could be pivotal to the season. Win, and the sky's the
limit. Lose...well, let's enjoy this win first. It doesn't avenge the cup
final loss, but the Jet Ski air raid siren was kept quiet.

My men of the match (in shirt order): - Tam, Wally, Williams, Buzzard, Budge,
and Larry.