St Jimmy eclipses St George in Dragon slaying role
By Stockers
October 9 2005
Saint Jimmy takes over from Saint George in Dragon slaying role. Powergen Cup Pool D, Round 2. Northampton Saints 32, Newport Gwent Dragons 7
At a pristine but rain swept
It was all a bit different yesterday with a six o’clock kick off and a stadium even bigger than we had left it last season. The new upper South Stand had been finished just in the nick of time for this game but clearly the players had resisted the temptation to muck in and help as they were well and truly prepared for a scintillating team effort in only the second home game this season.
Saints played with the blustery west wind at their backs in the first half and Carlos Spencer took the option whenever possible to test out Dragon’s catching skills with pin point up and unders. The Men of Gwent failed miserably, conceding knock-ons and field positions to Saints’ considerable advantage. But it wasn’t all kicking from the petit general at 10, his deft ball distribution and running lines featuring in both of Saints’ first two tries.
The first was a well worked move from a line out catch by Saints on the left in Dragon’s half with King Carlos feeding Ben Cohen sweeping round off his wing to make additional numbers in the line, along with Bruce Reihana who gave the final pass onto right winger Sean Lamont to touch down in the right corner for a perfectly good try, as confirmed by “Jeff”, the TV match official.
From the touchline, Bruce was unable to add the conversion, to make the score 8-0 to Saints after 7 minutes, Saints having already scored from a straight forward penalty kick in virtually the first move of the game.
Dragons had the chance to get the scoreboard moving after the restart when the Saints front row were pinged for collapsing the scrum but Gareth Wyatt pushed the kick well to the left into the strong breeze.
By now it was clear that the Saints line out was functioning very well not only on their own throw but on stealing a fair number on Dragons’ throw as well. Saints were using this “extra” ball well, attacking whenever possible. It gained ground for the home side and Dragons found it impossible to escape from the pressure.
From a Saints scrum in the midfield about35 metres out, Soden, who had a solid game at Number 8, popped the ball
up to Sharky who set off on a sprint through the Dragons cover defence and produced a delightful flip pass back inside to Bruce who was travelling at speed. Tackled 15 metres short the ruck ball was quickly recycled and taken forward again by Damien Browne. The next ruck was again cleared out quickly and the ball fed out left to Carlos who spotted the gap in the now stretched
Bruce added the extra points to make the score 15-0 after 17 minutes. The Gardens crowd were sensing something special!
Saints immediately had the opportunity to add 3 more points after Michael Owen made a mess of another Carlos up and under and was dumped by Foxy when regathering the ball and then pinged for not releasing but Bruce missed from 45 metres.
He was however successful on 28 minutes after another piece of Carlos magic, the kick off the outside of the foot, had been knocked on by Dragons who were the penalised for dropping the resultant scrum. 18-0 nil to Saints.
As half time approached, Dragons started to build some momentum and were putting the Saints defence under pressure but the line held under repeated attacks. Play moved down into Dragons half again but they broke out, hacking the ball on for a chip and chase towards the Saints line with only Sean Lamont in close pursuit. The Scottish winger made contact with his counterpart who went to ground and ref Tony Spreadbury, having one of his more variable performances, immediately consigned Lamont to the sin bin. Dragons appeals for a penalty try fell on deaf ears however and the interval arrived with Saints goal line again under attack.
In all, a very satisfactory 40 minutes of rugby for Saints in which Dragons had seen very little of the ball and the rugby played by the home side was another step forward in quality. A master class in bad weather kicking from King Carlos.
The question was would Saints lead of 18 points be enough to win the game with Dragons having the advantage of the wind in the second half. Fortunately, the weather gods were with the Saintly ones as the breeze calmed down significantly and the heavy rain diminished as the players returned to the pitch.
Dragons replaced two men at the break with
The game was sealed up in Saints favour however after only 3 minutes of the half with a move reminiscent of the previous try in that Soden popped the ball up again to Sharky who had the room to accelerate through the midfield defence whilst Dragons back row were still involved in the scrum. He hurtled past the Dragons centres and was only momentarily delayed by a despairing and ineffective tap tackle on his majestic progress to the try under the posts. A fantastic try coming from a well worked set piece move. Saints were truly in command of this game now. The gardens went wild.
Bruce added the conversion to bring the score to 25-0 and that with Lamont still in the bin!
The game then went into one of those Sargasso Sea periods with several replacements being made by both sides and the quality of play declining as a result, “Daddy” Gerard made his home debut for Saints (isn’t he big!) and promptly took his first line out catch superbly. Also taken cleanly was a catch by Bruce from a Dragons attempt to do a “Carlos” but the Kiwi 15 had it measured to perfection. Less accurate was recent replacement Kevin Morgan who didn’t get his timing quite right in challenging Bruce for the catch and instead of the ball, collected Bruce’s knee in the face. Purely accidental but it meant the end of the game for Morgan who was replaced by the player he had replaced at half time. Is that allowed? Curious.
Sam Harding, also making his FG debut, replaced Wally after 15 minutes, with Budge Pountney later saying that Steve had been running on empty after half time due to being away on
Relief from torpor was provided on 30 minutes by Spreaders who missed a clear forward pass by Dragons and then penalised Saints for being offside in defence! Grrrrrrrr!
More replacements on 31 minutes with Jonny Howard on for Man of the Match Sharky and Brett Sturgess on for Chicken.
Carlos was obviously getting bored with the game (understandably) and tried some running moves to break out of defence in Saints 22. They didn’t quite come off but nothing ventured etc etc.
Saints managed to move the game forward into Dragons half and after some cynical ball killing by
Dragons finished the game as they had the first half in attack and managed to work the ball right for Gareth Wyatt to squeeze in for a consolation try in Lamont’s corner where the lighting is obviously deficient as Spreaders had to ask “Jeff” to adjudicate again. The delay prompted our own Uncle Geoff to comment that they had to translate the pictures from Welsh so it was taking a while to decide! Craig Warlow added the conversion kick from the touchline.
Final score 32-7 to Saints and a valuable 4 tries and the bonus point to take Saints into a strong position at the top of the table with only (!!!!) an away game at Leicester to stand in the way of the quarter finals.
After the game Budge commented that Saints played well in the first half and looked to have the game sewn up but he was less pleased with the second half where the team’s play became scrappy and they allowed the niggle to unsettle them.
The Saints coaches are to sit down over a glass of
This week we saw a strong and committed performance from the pack, with the front five again on song. The clever moves from the base of the scrum led to two excellent tries and Saints are playing as a team again with good support running, team work in units around the ruck and maul ( eg the pick and drive from the base of the ruck is often being done by two men bound together) quick recycling and offloading in the tackle. More impressive is the taking of passes in space and at speed and that is something that was clearly absent last season.
Selborne Boome is back in form and his crashing tackle on Hal Luscombe was reminiscent of a “Rodber Special.” David Quinlan looks like the centre we have longed for since Big John Leslie left us and a special mention for “Snowy” Soden who worked hard, linked well with Sharky for those two tries and proved that we have some strength in depth in the back row dept. with Daniel Browne to come back from injury. That’s if Snowy lets him get his place back. And with Bruce, Ben, Sean and John Clarke around to take Carlos’s excellent distribution life is looking good for the Saints. Same again next week, please boys!