Warriors win agin at the Gardens
By Phil Hirons
January 1 2007
New Years Day was here again and it showed as the blurred eyes and hung-over faces entered Franklins Gardens via the turnstiles for what was set to be a relegation dog fight, with my theory of the loser of this game being relegated come May
Northampton Saints 9
Worcester Warriors 10
Attendance: 13,423
Franklins Gardens
January 1st 2007
The Warriors FG Curse Continues…….
Northampton: Diggin; Lamont, Mallon, Kydd, Cohen; Spencer, Robinson; Smith, Thompson, Barnard, Gerard, Short, Tupai, Fox, D Browne.
Replacements: Hartley, Budgen, Lord, Easter, J Howard, Bourett, Going.
Worcester: Drahm; Havili, Rasmussen, Trueman, Garvey; Brown, R Powell; Tuamoepeau, Lutui, Horsman, Gillies, Collier, Quinnell, Sanderson, Hickey.
Replacements: Morris, C Fortey, Murphy, Horstmann, M Powell, Lombard, Delport.
Referee: R Debney (RFU).
On the way to the ground I noticed it was not Green Black and Gold filling the Weedon Road but that of Blue and Orange. The Worcester Warrior support as ever was amazing and the banter between fans equally as good, just what makes the games between the two clubs a great experience. Today Northampton had a great chance to go 11 points clear of relegation and ease the pressure and really leave Worcester with their work cut out if they where to stay in the Guinness Premiership so really an 8 or 9 point game for both clubs.
Now, to the game as both teams warmed up on the pitch we realized as expected the many a Worcester fans were really behind their team. But this was matched with a good rendition of ‘Oh Wendy…’ as King Carlos prepared to Kick Off this Guinness Premiership match. Carlos put up a high ball which Worcester struggled to deal with and Ben Cohen out jumped his opposite number to regain possession for the Saints. Robbie Kydd ran onto Ben’s ball into what appeared to be a try scoring opportunity for the Saints opened up, but this was short lived as the ball made its way into touch. A promising start for the Saints. Northampton had the best scoring opportunities but Carlos Spencer missed a fourth-minute penalty and a powerful driving maul was pulled down a couple of metres shy of the Worcester line. Saints continued to apply the pressure in the opening phases but again simple errors led to Worcester getting possession back and clearing for touch. This game was already starting to look like a lot of ball from boot would be played. We knew this game would be a fiery affair with both teams having so much to prove and this showed when Paul Tupai and Tim Collier introduced themselves after Mr. Tupai had given Air Shane a bit of a push, All handbags and Rob Debney gave both a talking too and the game continued 0 – 0 after 10 minutes.
Worcester’s confidence began to build after Northampton’s back line failed to penetrate their defence and they began throwing the ball about the backs with some good ball being delivered by full back, former Northampton Saints player Shane Drahm. Their attack came to an abrupt halt as Sharky Robinson absolutely floored an in-flight Marcel Garvey stopping him dead in his tracks, Great tackle wasn’t it? Garvey threatened the Saints defence again a couple more times before being taken off, he had been playing rather gingerly after the hit from Robinson.
The first points of the afternoon came from Carlos Spencer who slotted home a long range penalty attempt after 13 minutes to make the score Northampton Saints 3 – 0 Worcester Warriors. Worcester fought back with some good outfield play and a lot of crash ball from Gavin ‘no pies left’ Quinnell, But he was brought down with some good defence from Ben Cohen, Paul Tupai and Daniel Browne. Other than a few failed crash ball attempts I don’t feel that Quinnell had the same impact on the game he had back in the EDF game at the Gardens where he scored 3 tries. Worcester attempted to get the scores back level as Fly Half James Brown watched on as his drop goal attempt drifted wide only for Shane Drahm to score a penalty moments later bringing the score level at 3 points a piece.
The game died down with both teams clearing their lines and not looking to run much ball, this was especially the case with the Saints are we scared running with ball in hand? Although I will give credit to Paul Diggin and Robbie Kydd who both tried to run the ball and get the back line firing where and when possible. The next try scoring opportunity again fell to Northampton as Carlos played a great ball into Seamus Mallon who sidestepped his way past his man before running a good 30 metres towards the Warriors line before passing to Kydd who in turn played the ball out to Ben Cohen when maybe he should have gone himself. Saints were in sight of the Worcester line when an infringement occurred. Saints Scrum 5 metres out. Here’s where the game started to collapse before our eyes. As many of you will know the new scrimmaging laws came into play today and it showed in the warm-ups as Sloane watched his front row practice a lock-touch-pause-engage technique. But 5 metres out from the Worcester line the referee in this case Debney allowed Worcester to collapse or break up 4/5 scrums and just opting for a reset each time, when maybe a penalty try should have been awarded. But let’s not blame the referee as we’d have lost the game even if the referee got his playing boots on and played for us! I’m not too clear as to what went on during the Saints final scrum but Worcester received the penalty and Drahmy cleared to touch only for his teammates to infringe at the lineout and Carlos taking a shot at goal to make the score line 6-3. Thinus Delport made a break towards the Saints line only to be stopped with a thunderous tackle from ‘he’s good for Scotland’ (what a member of B block had said to me) Sean Lamont knocking the ball from his hands, Saints Scrum. The Saints pack pushed Worcester back and eventually won a penalty, which was missed by Spencer.
Throughout the first half the Saints pack had been pushing the Worcester pack around a bit in the scrums and forward play, but could not complete the package as our lineout today was somewhat awful. Drahmy often cleared to touch to try and give his team mates an edge as Wally couldn’t find his man, when he did they knocked on. And as for the defensive lineout was there any point in lifting Dan Browne at the front each time? We achieved nothing from this except the disadvantage of having 3 forwards not ready for the Worcester maul which could have potentially have taken place. The first half drew a close with the score at 6-3 to the Saints and I for one had hope that we could win it, but we’d need to sort out our lineout and get the back line firing if we were to score other than from the boot.
Northampton made no changes at the break but Worcester replaced both former Saints front rower Tevita Tuamoepeau and Gavin Quinnell.
With both teams ready for the 2nd after what was hopefully a firing half time team talk from head coach Paul Grayson the 2nd half got underway. It started much how the first had finished only with Worcester raring to go and Drahmy trying to get his backline firing, the Saints where under early pressure. But Worcester suffered a loss early into the 2nd half with Aisea Havili being sin binned giving Saints a penalty 5 metres out and as we’d been destroying them at scrum time (unless they’d been collapsing it on purpose, but I’m sure that wasn’t the case [collapsing? How very dare you! …ed]) Captain Steve Thompson opted for a scrum, which again drove the Worcester pack towards their own whitewash, With Mark Robinson appearing to have scored for the Saints only for the officials to call it back for a knock on. Havili returned to the field of play with his team not having conceded any points and Northampton not really capitalizing on the extra man. With Havili back Worcester tried yet again to get some play through their backs and had their most potent attacking phase of the game resulting in Drew Hickey’s try, which was converted by Shane Drahm. 6-10 to the Warriors. Carlos Spencer drew the game closer with a penalty only moments later leaving the score at 9-10 going into the final quarter.
Coming up to the hour mark and Saints had a huge amount of possession in the Worcester half getting closer to the line before being turned over (for what felt like the 50th time!) and Drahmy clearing the ball to touch, Saints won the lineout through Christian Short and again applied pressure to the Worcester defense but lacked penetration and Worcester won the penalty and cleared their lines. Saints spent around 20 minutes in the Worcester 22 and came away with nothing. Saints had built momentum and had a penalty on the Worcester 5 metre line during this phase and it appeared the team were unsure on what decision to choose before Wally grabbed the ball and kicked it into touch for the lineout, the wrong choice in my opinion as the Lineout had been poor all game and our scrummage was out muscling theirs but that’s the decision the captain made. Thompson’s lineout was stolen against the head yet again and Worcester cleared their lines and that was the last real threat Saints poised to Worcester.
In the final 10 minutes as the heavens opened Worcester had a final attack but some solid Saints defense kept Dale Rasmussen at bay, Worcester fought on with some fierce forward play trying to breech the Saints defense. Saints continued to be turned over in midfield during the closing moments of the game as they tried to piece together one last thrust at the Worcester line. 5 minutes from time Carlos Spencer missed a third penalty attempt which would have given Saints the lead going into the close. 80 minutes where up but Saints where trying for one last attack but the Worcester Defense was up fast and they where just moving the ball from left to right and not really getting anywhere. I think the final phase of the game really summed it up as Worcester turned the Saints over and cleared to touch, Rob Debney called full time at the gardens…. So, thankfully we didn’t have to take the lineout. The final score was Northampton Saints 9 – 10 Worcester Warriors with Shane Drahm picking up the Travis Perkins man of the match award.
My theory going into today’s game was that the loser of this would most likely go down... I was obviously hoping it would be Worcester but now relegations fears really loom for us again this season. I don’t think its commitment or determination which the Saints are lacking at the moment but a simple lack of both Skill and Confidence. The forwards out muscled the Worcester scrum today but we lost the lineout so many times even with Thompson throwing in, that it was hard to capitalize on our Forwards dominance, and the amount of times we got turned over in midfield was appalling. A lot of the Worcester attacks where based on quick ball and good hands by Shane Drahm, Sharky and Howard really didn’t get good ball from their pack today therefore making it harder for Carlos and the backs to work some magic. The Saints really struggled to penetrate the Worcester defence as they were up quick and in our face through out the game. As for the amount of kicking from hand we did, why? We rarely even chased it therefore giving the ball straight back surely it would have been better to have run 10 metres and kept the ball, than kick 25 and lose it. I don’t particularly understand why none of our players chase the ball, if we catch the ball… great, if we don’t ….. We’ve applied pressure and we are there to make an early hit. I’ll give credit to Steve Thompson today for one thing , when he out ran Ben Cohen chasing a kick ahead, has Thompson’s pace come on leaps and bounds or was Ben only jogging? If so, Ben, you might as well have not bothered. I feel our biggest downfall came in poor decision making by the team, for instance kicking for touch with a malfunctioning lineout.
There are some positives to be taken from Today but very few, firstly the Saints Water boy…… Bruce Reihana. It was great to see Bruce back jogging around and to hear the ‘BRUCE BRUCE BRUCE’ chant ringing in the Tetley’s again was good. And we had some good defensive spells with Ben Cohen, Paul Tupai, Mark Robinson and DB2 standing out defensively.
Well the drought against Worcester at Franklins Gardens continues ever more and I’m sure Worcester will take heart and inspiration from this win and believe that avoiding the drop is more than possible. As a thought for the future we aim to get into the knockout stages of the Heineken cup using the Bonus point as a way of going through as best runner up behind Biarritz , come on people this isn’t the losers bonus point we are after , it’s the 4 try bonus point…. And today was our second week without crossing the white line, and if our penetration is as poor against Borders in 2 weeks time I don’t think we’ll get the 4 tries…..Up next, league leaders Bristol away!
Player Ratings (Out of 10 , with a brief)
Paul Diggin (8) Brave and willing to the run the ball
Sean Lamont (6) A couple of promising attacks and did ok in defense
Seamus Mallon (6) Other than his break in the first half , didn’t stand out for me
Rob Kydd (7) Good in defence and willing to the run the ball
Ben Cohen (7) Solid defence from Ben today , but lacked in attack
Los Spencer (7) Some usual Carlos magic but again poor with the boot
Mark Robinson (8) Great again from Sharky , some awesome defence, take that Garvey!
Tom Smith (7) As reliable as ever and great in the scrum for the Saints
Steve Thompson (5) Arguing with the ref , poor decisions and the lineout was awful
Pat Barnard (6) Good in scrum , quick to the breakdown , knocked on during vital phase
David Gerard (6) Good at the breakdown, lineout was poor but not down to him
Christian Short (6) exactly the same as Gerard but maybe better in defence
Paul Tupai (7) Solid in defense , got the handbags out again, but an ok performance
Darren Fox (6) Again good in defence but offered little else today
D Browne (6)Good in defence, but still running into tackles too high
Used Replacements:
Budgen (6) made one terrible pass but he’s a forward! Not on pitch too long
Lord (5) not on long enough to make an impact
J Howard (6) didn’t do anything wrong in the time he was on the pitch
Phil’s Northampton Saints Man Of The Match
Mark Robinson
Despite not lasting the entire game and being replaced around the hour mark , I felt Sharky was by far our best player today , solid and determine both in attack and defence. Other contenders where Paul Diggin, Robbie Kydd and Paul Tupai
