News: Sunk by the weight of indiscipline Sarries24 Saints 17
By David Lowrence
September 26 2010
Saints came to Watford today to put away a jinx. Once again, they left the ground with less than intended. In a downpour, with a bitter edge to the day, the team decided to throw discipline to the elements.
Aviva Premiership round 5
Saracens vs Northampton Saints
Sunday 26th September 2010
Vicarage Road K.O. 3pm
Score Saracens 24 Northampton Saints 17
In the pouring rain Saints got away to a strong start. With Britz on the bench and no Goode, Saints without Courtney, Wilson, Clarke and Ashton, the changes in starting lineups for both teams made them just about equal.
Oh yes did I mention the ref was Pearson?
We’ve played under Pearson enough times to know that he is not, how shall we say?, “Top drawer”. However this Saints squad has got to learn that a poor ref is no excuse for a loss of discipline. Apart from losing points, it actually makes him look 2 million light years better than he is. Saints threw this game away by very poor discipline, under a ref whose inconsistency caused, as so many times before, the side to throw away a winnable match.
Two minutes into the match, Saints were turning a penalty at the scrum, just as in last weeks match, to get another go at a less powerful front five. The ruse paid off, and from the next scrum Saints won the penalty for Geraghty to kick it in off the post. Kerrr-ching!! 3 points - in the bag - here we go again - perhaps.
0-3
It was about 10 minutes in, when Sarries, who had been taking a lot of punishment, started to niggle at Saints. The first penalty against Saints was when Sorensen went offside to give Hoo-Hah his first opportunity to kick. Kerpow!! Blasted over by the metronome!
3-3
Following a good set piece after the restart, the ball came to Geraghty, who, ignoring an overlap, kicked forward for Bruce to pick up. Like soap in the shower, he dropped it in front of the line. Pearson called them back for the advantage penalty, and Geraghty put the simplest of kicks over.
3-6
Saints line-out was at this point, dominant. Stealing a Saracens set piece, the ball went to Geraghty, who now had his chance to demonstrate catching soap. Great demo, and he duly dropped it. Following a scrum to Saracens, a Long touch-finder by Geraghty put Saints into the hosts 22. They were penalised at the line-out, and Saints obtained a penalty from the ensuing Scrum. The first miss of the day goes to Shane.
After 19 minutes a Saracens kick was charged down, and in the race for the line, Wood was beaten by de Kock to the touchdown. The gap could not have been separated by a bar of soap from the local IBIS hotel. By now the Saracens line-out was under severe pressure, They had lost 2 directly and were not making much ground from those they won. Once again, Saints charged the ball down from a set piece, and from the ensuing mêlée won a 5m Scrum
A charge down after the set piece and the resultant mêlée yields a 5m scrum. Mujati did a comprehensive number on Carstens, and won a penalty from the collapse which was duly converted by Geraghty.
Saints nine Saracens three - going to plan - but no running rugby yet.
3-9
Following the restart Tom Wood obstructs fairly obviously and earns another kick at the posts for Hougaard - Silly boy!
Hougaard makes it six nine and Saracens begin the fight back.
6-9
A Hougaard kick and chase out of their 22 puts Sarries into the Saints on the back foot. gathering the ball Hougaard leans back and almost lazily scores a monster drop goal
9-9
Saints are the side under pressure and the discipline starts to slip. Saracens wind up the niggle key, suspecting, rightly that they have found an Achilles heel. Saints seem to be getting caught offside more than is comfortable, silly penalties and Pearson has a word with Dylan. By now the Sarries pack has worked out how to play Mujati, and when Nieto manages to get below Tiny, he comes up trumps.
A rumble forward by the Saracens pack sees newcomer Calum Clark collect the first yellow card of the day.By now Saints are beginning to lose discipline. Time to play to Piggy, but by now they have lost all respect for his judgement, and this becomes quite clear to him, so he starts to do what all referees do in this circumstance, and only ref one side. When will you learn Dylan
12-9
Saints decide that, in spite of the atrocious conditions it would be better to play some 
running rugby, and for a short while it gave some respite, Geraghty kick a beatififul cross field ball on the run, but unfortunately it was overcooked by a gnats whisker and thely all trooped back to the half way line for the Saracens line-out. At a subsequent scrum Mr Pearson made the first of what I will call his one-eyed decisions and penalised Tiny for pulling the scrum round. It was clear by now that he did not know what was going on and was reffing the scrum by guesswork. His guess (I have NEVER seen Tiny take a backward step voluntarily in a scrum). but the guesswork gave Hougaard another chance.
15-9
The VR bogey is not going away today!
At this point Saints lose their first line-out - a long throw to the back. by now the wheels on the Saintsmibile are screaming for lack of leadership oil, and they appear to be falling off. Following a string of decisions against Saints, Sir is reminded by a Touch judge that Barritt is offside (again). ( his constant breaking of the gain line though, is beyond good)
Another Penalty for Geraghty and the score is now
15-12
1 minute to half time and Calum Clark returns, to celebrate which hougaard tries another drop goal - and misses.
TGIHT!
The restart for the second half saw a complete lack of decision as to which Saint was going for the ball, and by the time it had bounced in open play saracens were on it like white on rice. The inevitable penalty gave Hougaard another chance.
18-12
Apart from some good kick chase stuff Saracens were gradually gaining a solid upper hand, with the pack begining to front up against Saints. One really good drive by the Saints was pulled down by Borthwick, and yet another saw Saracens emrge on the back foot with the ball. It was about this time that Dylan and Pearson mutually removed each other from their Christmas card list. Pearson off because of his inconsistency, Dylan removed because he let it get to him.
Neto was replaced having had a really good game, but once again Saints messed up another good drive and conceded the ball and a lineout to Saracens. By now it was painful to watch the Saints being held at arms length by Hougaard’s boot and Pearsons whistle. and I nearly gave up.
Barritt breaks the line again but is brought down, in clearing the ball, Saints concede yet another Penalty, and the frustration is showing.
Hougaard again
21-12
Following yet another direct kick to touch, Saints win the line-out and cycling through Bruce, Geraghty clears to touch. From the ensuing break from the line-out, Geraghty puts in a brave tackle to bring down the runner. Rolling away at anything less than the speed of light is clearly not good enough for Mr Pearson, and he duly cards Shane and awards a penalty. Quite the most inconsistent decision of the afternoon, when compared with Borthwick and Carsten’s lying all over the ball (of which more later.)
Hougaard again
24-12
Saints don’t seem to be able to keep the ball for any length of time.
However when they do get it, they now start to run the ball and throw it about. With some success. This improves when Myler comes on later for Geraghty and the pace is now Saints as opposed to Saracens. After a great drive, and playing an advantage, which was called right up till he went for the line, Tiny was brought down 1 metre from the line with a two man overlap to his right. Imagine everyones surprise when the advantage had somehow disappeared. Another inconsistency and Dylan’s response was typically “Old Hartleyesque. “ He was lucky to stay on, but not as lucky as Pearson is to have a license.
After another line-out from Saints, they drive over the line. Mr Pearson goes to TV, but Borthwick has saved Saracens again. The ensuing Scrum sees Carstens deliberately come round the side, but his invisibility cloak hides him from all except the supporters, Saints players and the TV. Saints are getting really irritated by now.
By now Myler is having an effect on the Saints’ style of play - flatter quicker, Reihana and Digger are in the mix and starting to make some inroads into the Saracens half. A quick pick and drive at the line produced the most contentious episode of the match. Dickson comes to a ruck up at the Sarries Line, to find Mr Invisibility once again lying at the back. From the TV replay (and hindsight is a wonderful thing), he appears to try to jump over him to get to the action. He fails and and Carstens gets a bit of what used to be called shoeing. I cant tell how deliberate the action was, Dickson is not known as a dirty player, but I do know that Carstens knew where he was, but again Mr Pearson seemed to be playing the part of the 3rd wise monkey. Penalty against Saints. By now almost everyone had given up on Saints, except Myler, Wilson and Bruce. The error strewn 2nd half was suddenly alive. Pearson, however was not finished yet. The ball was kicked long at the Saints goal line and Foden chased back. as the ball carried though the in goal area,. Ben slid along in front of it, very careful not to touch it as it went dead. He needn’t have bothered, Pearson called carried into touch and penalised Saints. Again.
After 76 minutes Bruce suddenly spurred the backs to action. Racing at the Sarries line, their defence is too much, so all Myler can do is kick a grubber for touch. Saints put real pressure on at the line-out and the resultant clearance gives them a line-out in almost the same place. From here a quick hands trajectory across the Sarries defence and a miss pass finds Digger in space and over the line. Bonus Point gained. The resulting restart was kicked out by Saints on the Safety First principal.
No Side
17-24
Saints will not need a hairdryer after their shower today. They threw away a good chance - remember Saracens at NO TIME threatened our line, they just played the ref and waited for us to get wound up by him.
Patience
Discipline
Needed for the journey.
PS for those of you with ESPN recorded. Go back and listen to what AH says about Geraghty after he tried to kick through rather than pass out. Interesting. You should write to him, after all I was roundly condemmned after I said something similar last year!
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Saint til I die
The one back who did anything was Barritt from Saracens, afraid the Saints backs are pretty toothless without Ashton to provide the finish. Again the Saints problem at no 10 was exposed, both are good second choices but neither are up to being first choice in a squad hoping to compete for major prizes at the end of the season.
That's our first disappointment of the season and a LBP away at one of the contenders is IMHO a good result. Tigers are sure they'll reverse our result at wellbad road, so we should think the same for when the fezheads come to the Gardens.
No alcohol for January. I'm a dryathlete in aid of cancer research.
Dryathlon
Roll on next weekend and this game will be nought but a distant memory
Mrs P has also noticed Shanes body language after games finish - he doesnt seem to share his emotions with or share those of his fellow players - win or loose. A loner ?
Effion - i think you are Chris Hewitt.
OP, on the subject of SG I don't think he's part of the "lads section" at the saints, he's too serious for some. I noticed on Twitter that he reacted negatively to some of Dylan Hartley's disparaging comments about his posts. DH consequently made more fun of him publicly on Twitter. Now if the consequence of that is marginalising Shane then it's poor off the field captaincy by Hartley. I'm already not very impressed by his on field leadership especially when dealing with tricky referees. Dowson is much more mature and effective IMVHO.
Quote:For the pack, it doesn't seem to be quite the same without having around 13,000 fans cheering them on at their home patch.
Mr Jones obviosuly didn't see them at The Stoop two weeks ago then.
We can't undo the good work by fouling up this weekend though.
Why ? Because we spent the game scrabbling in the mud rather than running about and ...
Poor communication with the ref. Polite pointing out of the sins of the other side- as Borthwick was doing- achieves far more than mouthing off at him.
As soon as SM comes on the backs have shape. balls get passed and we score tries. We always win by tries.If SM had started we would have won that game.
Awaits storm of protest.
David L
What if there were no hypothetical questions?
- Live wrong and preposterously